CVE-2016-2143

Published: 27 April 2016

The fork implementation in the Linux kernel before 4.5 on s390 platforms mishandles the case of four page-table levels, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted application, related to arch/s390/include/asm/mmu_context.h and arch/s390/include/asm/pgalloc.h.

From the Ubuntu Security Team

Marcin Kościelnicki discovered that the Linux kernel's fork implementation incorrectly handled the case of four page-table levels on s390 platforms. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly gain administrative privileges.

Notes

android kernels (flo, goldfish, grouper, maguro, mako and manta) are
not supported on the Ubuntu Touch 14.10 and earlier preview kernels
linux-lts-saucy no longer receives official support
linux-lts-quantal no longer receives official support

s390x only

Status

Severity score breakdown

References

• https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-2143
• NVD
• Launchpad
• Debian

Bugs

• https://launchpad.net/bugs/1556141