CVE-2016-2550

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.0)
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: 2016-04-27 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-399

Description

The Linux kernel before 4.5 allows local users to bypass file-descriptor limits and cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by leveraging incorrect tracking of descriptor ownership and sending each descriptor over a UNIX socket before closing it. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incorrect fix for CVE-2013-4312.

Affected products

Linux kernel: through 4.4.8

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=415e3d3e90ce9e18727e8843ae343eda5a58fad6
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3503
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/02/23/2
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpujan2018-3236628.html
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2946-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2946-2
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2947-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2947-2
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2947-3
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2948-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2948-2
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2949-1

Get alerted when CVE-2016-2550 or the next vulnerability affects your stack