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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2010-4655 json

net/core/ethtool.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36 does not initialize certain data structures, which allows local users to obtain potent…

published 15y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2010-4620

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 34%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

net/core/ethtool.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36 does not initialize certain data structures, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel heap memory by leveraging the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability for an ethtool ioctl call.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 2.6.36
  • kernel RHEL 6 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6
  • perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6
  • kernel-kdump RHEL 6 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6
  • kernel-firmware RHEL 6 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 6 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 RHEL 6 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 RHEL 6 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x RHEL 6 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2011:0421RHSA-2011:0263RHSA-2011:0330RHSA-2011:0303

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2010-4655 updated cvss 1.2

kernel: heap contents leak for CAP_NET_ADMIN via ethtool ioctl

  • Red Hat MRG Realtime for RHEL 5 Server perf 2.6.33.7-rt29.55.el5rt, kernel-rt 2.6.33.7-rt29.55.el5rt, kernel-rt-trace 2.6.33.7-rt29.55.el5rt, kernel-rt-vanilla 2.6.33.7-rt29.55.el5rt, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common 2.6.33.7-rt29.55.el5rt
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0330
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5.6.z server) kernel 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5, kernel-PAE 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5, kernel-xen 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5, kernel-kdump 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5, kernel-debuginfo-common 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0303
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 kernel 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-smp 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-xenU 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-largesmp 2.6.9-100.EL
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0263
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0421
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 kernel 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-smp 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-xenU 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-largesmp 2.6.9-100.EL Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 kernel 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-smp 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-xenU 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-largesmp 2.6.9-100.EL
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0263
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-71.24.1.el6, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0421
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 kernel 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-smp 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-xenU 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.6.9-100.EL, kernel-largesmp 2.6.9-100.EL
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0263

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.40% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 34% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.