CVE-2016-0821

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2016-03-12 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-908

Description

The LIST_POISON feature in include/linux/poison.h in the Linux kernel before 4.3, as used in Android 6.0.1 before 2016-03-01, does not properly consider the relationship to the mmap_min_addr value, which makes it easier for attackers to bypass a poison-pointer protection mechanism by triggering the use of an uninitialized list entry, aka Android internal bug 26186802, a different vulnerability than CVE-2015-3636.

Affected products

Android: 6.0.1
Linux kernel: before 4.3 — fixed in 4.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=8a5e5e02fc83aaf67053ab53b359af08c6c49aaf
http://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-03-01.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3607
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/05/02/6
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/84260
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2967-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2967-2
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2968-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2968-2
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2969-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2970-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2971-1

Get alerted when CVE-2016-0821 or the next vulnerability affects your stack