What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2012-0056

• Severity: medium (CVSS 6.9 v2.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 10.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2012-01-27 · updated 2026-06-16
• Weakness: CWE-264

Description

The mem_write function in the Linux kernel before 3.2.2, when ASLR is disabled, does not properly check permissions when writing to /proc/<pid>/mem, which allows local users to gain privileges by modifying process memory, as demonstrated by Mempodipper.

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 2.6.39 before 3.0.18; from 3.1 before 3.2.2 — fixed in 3.0.18, 3.2.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.0.18, 3.2.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://blog.zx2c4.com/749
• http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=e268337dfe26dfc7efd422a804dbb27977a3cccc
• http://secunia.com/advisories/47708
• http://ubuntu.com/usn/usn-1336-1
• http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/470151
• http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/ChangeLog-3.2.2
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/01/18/1
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/01/18/2
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/01/19/4
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/01/22/4
• http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2012-0052.html
• http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2012-0061.html

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