CVE-2016-1575

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2016-05-02 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-269

Description

The overlayfs implementation in the Linux kernel through 4.5.2 does not properly maintain POSIX ACL xattr data, which allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging a group-writable setgid directory.

Affected products

Canonical Ubuntu Core: 15.04
Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 12.04, 14.04, 15.10, 16.04, 16.10
Canonical Ubuntu Touch: 15.04
Linux kernel: through 4.5.2

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=e9f57ebcba563e0cd532926cab83c92bb4d79360
http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-security/cve/2016/CVE-2016-1575.html
http://www.halfdog.net/Security/2016/UserNamespaceOverlayfsXattrSetgidPrivilegeEscalation/
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/02/24/7
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/10/18/1
https://launchpad.net/bugs/1534961
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=e9f57ebcba563e0cd532926cab83c92bb4d79360
http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-security/cve/2016/CVE-2016-1575.html
http://www.halfdog.net/Security/2016/UserNamespaceOverlayfsXattrSetgidPrivilegeEscalation/
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/02/24/7
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/10/18/1
https://launchpad.net/bugs/1534961

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