CVE-2010-2240

Severity: high (CVSS 7.2 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2010-09-03 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-94

Description

The do_anonymous_page function in mm/memory.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.27.52, 2.6.32.x before 2.6.32.19, 2.6.34.x before 2.6.34.4, and 2.6.35.x before 2.6.35.2 does not properly separate the stack and the heap, which allows context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code by writing to the bottom page of a shared memory segment, as demonstrated by a memory-exhaustion attack against the X.Org X server.

Affected products

Linux kernel: through 2.6.27.51; 2.6.32, 2.6.32.1, 2.6.32.2, 2.6.32.3, 2.6.32.4, 2.6.32.5 (+17)

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=320b2b8de12698082609ebbc1a17165727f4c893
http://lists.vmware.com/pipermail/security-announce/2011/000133.html
http://securitytracker.com/id?1024344
http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2094
http://www.invisiblethingslab.com/resources/misc-2010/xorg-large-memory-attacks.pdf
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.27.52
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.32.19
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.34.4
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.35.2
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2010:172
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2010:198
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2011:051

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