CVE-2010-4248

Severity: medium (CVSS 4.9 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2010-11-30 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-362

Description

Race condition in the __exit_signal function in kernel/exit.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37-rc2 allows local users to cause a denial of service via vectors related to multithreaded exec, the use of a thread group leader in kernel/posix-cpu-timers.c, and the selection of a new thread group leader in the de_thread function in fs/exec.c.

Affected products

Linux kernel: before 2.6.37; 2.6.37, 2.6.37-rc1 — fixed in 2.6.37

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 2.6.37. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=e0a70217107e6f9844628120412cb27bb4cea194
http://secunia.com/advisories/42789
http://secunia.com/advisories/42890
http://secunia.com/advisories/46397
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/ChangeLog-2.6.37-rc2
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2011:029
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2010/11/23/2
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2010/11/24/9
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2011-0004.html
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2011-0007.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/520102/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/45028

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