CVE-2014-7975

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2014-10-13 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

The do_umount function in fs/namespace.c in the Linux kernel through 3.17 does not require the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability for do_remount_sb calls that change the root filesystem to read-only, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (loss of writability) by making certain unshare system calls, clearing the / MNT_LOCKED flag, and making an MNT_FORCE umount system call.

Affected products

Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 10.04, 12.04, 14.04, 14.10
Linux kernel: through 3.17

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=0ef3a56b1c466629cd0bf482b09c7b0e5a085bb5
http://secunia.com/advisories/60174
http://secunia.com/advisories/61145
http://secunia.com/advisories/62633
http://secunia.com/advisories/62634
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.stable/109312
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/10/08/22
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/70314
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1031180
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2415-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2416-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2417-1

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