CVE-2014-4014

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.2 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2014-06-23 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-264

Description

The capabilities implementation in the Linux kernel before 3.14.8 does not properly consider that namespaces are inapplicable to inodes, which allows local users to bypass intended chmod restrictions by first creating a user namespace, as demonstrated by setting the setgid bit on a file with group ownership of root.

Affected products

Linux kernel: before 3.14.8 — fixed in 3.14.8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.14.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=23adbe12ef7d3d4195e80800ab36b37bee28cd03
http://secunia.com/advisories/59220
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/33824
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/ChangeLog-3.14.8
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/06/10/4
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/67988
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1030394
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1107966
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/23adbe12ef7d3d4195e80800ab36b37bee28cd03
https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-12-01.html
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=23adbe12ef7d3d4195e80800ab36b37bee28cd03
http://secunia.com/advisories/59220

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