CVE-2015-8961

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 2.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2016-11-16 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

The __ext4_journal_stop function in fs/ext4/ext4_jbd2.c in the Linux kernel before 4.3.3 allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (use-after-free) by leveraging improper access to a certain error field.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.10.85 before 3.12; from 3.12.46 before 3.12.52; from 3.14.49 before 3.14.59; from 3.18.20 before 3.18.54; from 4.1.4 before 4.1.15; from 4.2 before 4.2.8 — fixed in 3.12, 3.12.52, 3.14.59, 3.18.54, 4.1.15, 4.2.8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.12, 3.12.52, 3.14.59, 3.18.54. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6934da9238da947628be83635e365df41064b09b
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.3.3
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94135
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/6934da9238da947628be83635e365df41064b09b
https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-11-01.html
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6934da9238da947628be83635e365df41064b09b
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.3.3
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94135
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/6934da9238da947628be83635e365df41064b09b
https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-11-01.html

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