CVE-2015-9004

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2017-05-02 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-264

Description

kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.19 mishandles counter grouping, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, related to the perf_pmu_register and perf_event_open functions.

Affected products

Android: through 7.1.1
Linux kernel: before 3.2.95; from 3.10.65 before 3.10.105; from 3.12 before 3.12.68; from 3.14.29 before 3.16.35; from 3.18.3 before 3.18.52 — fixed in 3.10.105, 3.12.68, 3.16.35, 3.18.52, 3.2.95

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.10.105, 3.12.68, 3.16.35, 3.18.52. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=c3c87e770458aa004bd7ed3f29945ff436fd6511
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98166
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/c3c87e770458aa004bd7ed3f29945ff436fd6511
https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2017-05-01
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=c3c87e770458aa004bd7ed3f29945ff436fd6511
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98166
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/c3c87e770458aa004bd7ed3f29945ff436fd6511
https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2017-05-01

Get alerted when CVE-2015-9004 or the next vulnerability affects your stack