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Fencer Intel
medium 4.9

CVE-2011-1083 json

The epoll implementation in the Linux kernel 2.6.37.2 and earlier does not properly traverse a tree of epoll file descriptors, which allows…

published 2011-04-03 15 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2011-1098

cvss
4.9
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.8%
EPSS 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 56%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

The epoll implementation in the Linux kernel 2.6.37.2 and earlier does not properly traverse a tree of epoll file descriptors, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a crafted application that makes epoll_create and epoll_ctl system calls.

Patch / fix

  • kernel RHEL 6 2.6.32-279.el6
  • perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-279.el6
  • python-perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-279.el6
  • kernel-kdump RHEL 6 2.6.32-279.el6
  • kernel-firmware RHEL 6 2.6.32-279.el6
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 6 2.6.32-279.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 RHEL 6 2.6.32-279.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 RHEL 6 2.6.32-279.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2012:1129RHSA-2012:0862RHSA-2012:0150RHBA-2012:0496

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-2011-1083 updated cvss 4.9

kernel: excessive in kernel CPU consumption when creating large nested epoll structures

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) kernel 2.6.18-308.el5, kernel-PAE 2.6.18-308.el5, kernel-xen 2.6.18-308.el5, kernel-kdump 2.6.18-308.el5, kernel-debuginfo-common 2.6.18-308.el5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) kernel 2.6.18-308.el5, kernel-PAE 2.6.18-308.el5, kernel-xen 2.6.18-308.el5, kernel-debuginfo-common 2.6.18-308.el5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:0150
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-279.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-279.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-279.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-279.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-279.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-279.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-279.el6, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:0862
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.2) perf 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1129
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-279.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-279.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:0862
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional EUS (v. 6.2) kernel 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.24.1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1129
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-279.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-279.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-279.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-279.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:0862
  • Red Hat MRG Realtime for RHEL 6 Server v.2 kernel-rt 3.0.25-rt44.57.el6rt, kernel-rt-trace 3.0.25-rt44.57.el6rt, kernel-rt-vanilla 3.0.25-rt44.57.el6rt, kernel-rt-firmware 3.0.25-rt44.57.el6rt, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.0.25-rt44.57.el6rt
    fixed: vendor fix RHBA-2012:0496

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

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-35403)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

0.80% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 56% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-35403 Linux Kernel 2.6.x - epoll Nested Structures Local Denial of Service dos, 2011-03-02

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 4.9 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
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.