What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2014-0196: Linux Kernel Race Condition Vulnerability

• Severity: medium (CVSS 6.9 v2.0)
• Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2023-05-12
• EPSS: 20.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2014-05-07 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-362

Description

The n_tty_write function in drivers/tty/n_tty.c in the Linux kernel through 3.14.3 does not properly manage tty driver access in the "LECHO & !OPOST" case, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and system crash) or gain privileges by triggering a race condition involving read and write operations with long strings.

Affected products

• Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 10.04, 12.04, 12.10, 13.10, 14.04
• Debian Linux: 6.0, 7.0
• F5 BIG-IP APM: from 11.1.0 through 11.5.1
• BIG-IP: from 11.3.0 through 11.5.1
• F5 Big-Ip Analytics: from 11.1.0 through 11.5.1
• F5 Networks, Inc. BIG-IP (AAM): from 11.4.0 through 11.5.1
• BIG-IP ASM: from 11.1.0 through 11.5.1
• F5 Big-Ip Edge Gateway: from 11.1.0 through 11.3.0
• F5 Big-Ip Global Traffic Manager: from 11.1.0 through 11.5.1
• F5 Big-Ip Link Controller: from 11.1.0 through 11.5.1
• F5 BIG-IP (LTM): from 11.1.0 through 11.5.1
• F5 Networks, Inc. BIG-IP (PEM): from 11.3.0 through 11.5.1
• F5 Big-Ip Protocol Security Module: from 11.1.0 through 11.4.1
• F5 Big-Ip Wan Optimization Manager: from 11.1.0 through 11.3.0
• F5 Big-Ip Webaccelerator: from 11.1.0 through 11.3.0
• F5 Big-Iq Application Delivery Controller: 4.5.0
• F5 BIG-IQ: 4.6.0
• F5 Big-Iq Cloud: from 4.0.0 through 4.5.0
• F5 Networks, Inc. BIG-IQ Cloud and Orchestration: 1.0.0
• F5 Big-Iq Device: from 4.2.0 through 4.5.0
• F5 Big-Iq Security: from 4.0.0 through 4.5.0
• F5 Networks, Inc. Enterprise Manager: 3.1.0, 3.1.1
• Linux kernel: from 2.6.31 (excl.) before 3.2.59; from 3.3 before 3.4.91; from 3.5 before 3.10.40; from 3.11 before 3.12.20; from 3.13 before 3.14.4; 2.6.31, 2.6.31-rc3, 2.6.31-rc4, 2.6.31-rc5, 2.6.31-rc6, 2.6.31-rc7 (+2) — fixed in 3.10.40, 3.12.20, 3.14.4, 3.2.59, 3.4.91
• Oracle Corporation Oracle Linux: 6
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 6.0
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Eus: 6.3, 6.4
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Server Eus: 6.3
• Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop: 11-sp3
• Suse Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension: 11-sp3
• SUSE Linux Enterprise: 11-sp3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.10.40, 3.12.20, 3.14.4, 3.2.59. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=875690
• http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=4291086b1f081b869c6d79e5b7441633dc3ace00
• http://linux.oracle.com/errata/ELSA-2014-0771.html
• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2014-05/msg00007.html
• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2014-05/msg00012.html
• http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=yTSFUBgZ
• http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-0512.html
• http://secunia.com/advisories/59218
• http://secunia.com/advisories/59262
• http://secunia.com/advisories/59599
• http://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-07-01.html
• http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/15000/300/sol15319.html

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