CVE-2016-6786

Severity: high (CVSS 7.0 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: 2016-12-28 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-264

Description

kernel/events/core.c in the performance subsystem in the Linux kernel before 4.0 mismanages locks during certain migrations, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka Android internal bug 30955111.

Affected products

Linux kernel: before 3.2.85; from 3.3 before 3.16.40; from 3.17 before 3.18.54; from 3.19 before 4.0 — fixed in 3.16.40, 3.18.54, 3.2.85, 4.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 3.16.40, 3.18.54, 3.2.85, 4.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=f63a8daa5812afef4f06c962351687e1ff9ccb2b
http://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-12-01.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3791
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94679
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1403842
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/f63a8daa5812afef4f06c962351687e1ff9ccb2b
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=f63a8daa5812afef4f06c962351687e1ff9ccb2b
http://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-12-01.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3791
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94679
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1403842
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/f63a8daa5812afef4f06c962351687e1ff9ccb2b

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