CVE-2017-5546

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: 2017-02-06 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

The freelist-randomization feature in mm/slab.c in the Linux kernel 4.8.x and 4.9.x before 4.9.5 allows local users to cause a denial of service (duplicate freelist entries and system crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact in opportunistic circumstances by leveraging the selection of a large value for a random number.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 4.7 before 4.9.5 — fixed in 4.9.5

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.9.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=c4e490cf148e85ead0d1b1c2caaba833f1d5b29f
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.9.5
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/01/21/3
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95711
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1415733
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/c4e490cf148e85ead0d1b1c2caaba833f1d5b29f
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=c4e490cf148e85ead0d1b1c2caaba833f1d5b29f
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.9.5
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/01/21/3
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95711
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1415733
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/c4e490cf148e85ead0d1b1c2caaba833f1d5b29f

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