CVE-2016-4581

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2016-05-23 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

fs/pnode.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.4 does not properly traverse a mount propagation tree in a certain case involving a slave mount, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and OOPS) via a crafted series of mount system calls.

Affected products

Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 12.04, 14.04, 15.10, 16.04
Linux kernel: through 4.5.3
Oracle Corporation Oracle Linux: 6

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=5ec0811d30378ae104f250bfc9b3640242d81e3f
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-06/msg00044.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2574.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2584.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3607
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.5.4
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/05/11/2
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinjul2016-3090544.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/ovmbulletinoct2016-3090547.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/90607
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2989-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2998-1

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