CVE-2014-3631

Severity: high (CVSS 7.2 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2014-09-28 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

The assoc_array_gc function in the associative-array implementation in lib/assoc_array.c in the Linux kernel before 3.16.3 does not properly implement garbage collection, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via multiple "keyctl newring" operations followed by a "keyctl timeout" operation.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.13 before 3.14.19; from 3.15 before 3.16.3 — fixed in 3.14.19, 3.16.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.14.19, 3.16.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=95389b08d93d5c06ec63ab49bd732b0069b7c35e
http://osvdb.org/show/osvdb/111298
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/36268
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/ChangeLog-3.16.3
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/70095
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2378-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2379-1
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1140325
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/95389b08d93d5c06ec63ab49bd732b0069b7c35e
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=95389b08d93d5c06ec63ab49bd732b0069b7c35e
http://osvdb.org/show/osvdb/111298
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/36268

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