Linux Kernel Vulnerability Grants Root Access for 19 Years
TL;DR. A 19-year-old Linux kernel vulnerability in the CIFS subsystem allows low-privileged users to achieve root access on affected systems. - The CIFSwitch flaw permits attackers to modify key description fields, bypassing origin checks during authentication. - The exploit leverages the cifs-utils helper to load attacker-controlled code as root through a fake NSS config. - Several Linux distributions including CentOS and Kali are vulnerable if cifs-utils is installed by default.
- A flaw in the Linux kernel's CIFS subsystem allowed root privileges for 19 years.
- Bypassing key description origin checks, attackers use `request_key` to call `cifs.upcall` as root.
- Impacted distributions include Linux Mint, CentOS, Rocky Linux, Kali Linux, AlmaLinux, and SLES SAP.
- SpaceX security engineer Asim Viladi Oglu Manizada discovered and detailed the vulnerability.
Sources
- thehackernews.com — thehackernews.com
- 19-Year-Old Linux Kernel Vulnerability Exposes Systems to Root Access — securityweek.com