CVE-2015-3288

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 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: 2016-10-16 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-20

Description

mm/memory.c in the Linux kernel before 4.1.4 mishandles anonymous pages, which allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (page tainting) via a crafted application that triggers writing to page zero.

Affected products

Linux kernel: before 3.2.71; from 3.4 before 3.4.111; from 3.10 before 3.10.86; from 3.12 before 3.12.47; from 3.14 before 3.14.50; from 3.16 before 3.16.35 — fixed in 3.10.86, 3.12.47, 3.14.50, 3.16.35, 3.18.52, 3.2.71

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.10.86, 3.12.47, 3.14.50, 3.16.35. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6b7339f4c31ad69c8e9c0b2859276e22cf72176d
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.1.4
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93591
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1333830
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/6b7339f4c31ad69c8e9c0b2859276e22cf72176d
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-3288
https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2017-01-01.html
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6b7339f4c31ad69c8e9c0b2859276e22cf72176d
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.1.4
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93591
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1333830
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/6b7339f4c31ad69c8e9c0b2859276e22cf72176d

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