What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2011-1020

• Severity: medium (CVSS 4.6 v2.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2011-02-28 · updated 2026-06-16
• Weakness: CWE-200

Description

The proc filesystem implementation in the Linux kernel 2.6.37 and earlier does not restrict access to the /proc directory tree of a process after this process performs an exec of a setuid program, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information or cause a denial of service via open, lseek, read, and write system calls.

Affected products

• Linux kernel: before 2.6.37 — 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://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/02/24/18
• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/02/25/2
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2011/Jan/421
• http://secunia.com/advisories/43496
• http://securityreason.com/securityalert/8107
• http://www.halfdog.net/Security/2011/SuidBinariesAndProcInterface/
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/46567
• https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/65693
• https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/2/10/21
• https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/2/7/368
• https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/2/7/404
• https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/2/7/414

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