What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2017-17052

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 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: 2017-11-29 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-416

Description

The mm_init function in kernel/fork.c in the Linux kernel before 4.12.10 does not clear the ->exe_file member of a new process's mm_struct, allowing a local attacker to achieve a use-after-free or possibly have unspecified other impact by running a specially crafted program.

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 4.7 before 4.9.46; from 4.10 before 4.12.10 — fixed in 4.12.10, 4.9.46

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.12.10, 4.9.46. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=2b7e8665b4ff51c034c55df3cff76518d1a9ee3a
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/102009
• https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/2b7e8665b4ff51c034c55df3cff76518d1a9ee3a
• https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.12.10
• http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=2b7e8665b4ff51c034c55df3cff76518d1a9ee3a
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/102009
• https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/2b7e8665b4ff51c034c55df3cff76518d1a9ee3a
• https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.12.10

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