Race condition in the ptrace and utrace support in the Linux kernel 2.6.9 through 2.6.25, as used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4,…

Description

Race condition in the ptrace and utrace support in the Linux kernel 2.6.9 through 2.6.25, as used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4, allows local users to cause a denial of service (oops) via a long series of PTRACE_ATTACH ptrace calls to another user's process that trigger a conflict between utrace_detach and report_quiescent, related to "late ptrace_may_attach() check" and "race around &dead_engine_ops setting," a different vulnerability than CVE-2007-0771 and CVE-2008-1514. NOTE: this issue might only affect kernel versions before 2.6.16.x.

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.53% · top 55% of all CVEs (3 Nov 2026)

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.7.

Weakness

• n/a
• CWE-362 (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-362 and its CVEs

Affected products

• n/a

  • affected n/a

References (17)

• linux-kernel-ptraceattach-dos(43567) (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_XFx_transferred
• http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.25.y.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=f5b40e363ad6041a96e3da32281d8faa191597b9 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• 1020362 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
• http://sources.redhat.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/tests/ptrace-tests/tests/late-ptrace-may-attach-check.c?cvsroot=systemtap (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
• 29945 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
• http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.25.y.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=5ecfbae093f0c37311e89b29bfc0c9d586eace87 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• [oss-security] 20080714 Re: CVE-2008-2365 kernel: ptrace: Crash on PTRACE_{ATTACH,DETACH} race -- affecting kernel versions <= 2.6.25 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
• 3965 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SREASONx_transferred
• oval:org.mitre.oval:def:10749 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entrysignaturex_refsource_OVALx_transferred
• 30850 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=449359 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.25.y.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=f358166a9405e4f1d8e50d8f415c26d95505b6de (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
• 31107 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
• [oss-security] 20080626 CVE-2008-2365 kernel: ptrace: Crash on PTRACE_{ATTACH,DETACH} race -- affecting kernel versions <= 2.6.25 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
• USN-625-1 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_UBUNTUx_transferred
• RHSA-2008:0508 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
• [linux-kernel] 20070508 Re: [PATCH -utrace] Move utrace into task_struct (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2008-2365](https://trackcve.app/badge/CVE-2008-2365.svg)](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2008-2365)

Record last updated 7 Aug 2024, 08:58 UTC.