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Fencer Intel
high 7.0

CVE-2015-8709 json

kernel/ptrace.c in the Linux kernel through 4.4.1 mishandles uid and gid mappings, which allows local users to gain privileges by establish…

published 2016-02-08 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-8586

cvss
7.0
version 3.0, 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

kernel/ptrace.c in the Linux kernel through 4.4.1 mishandles uid and gid mappings, which allows local users to gain privileges by establishing a user namespace, waiting for a root process to enter that namespace with an unsafe uid or gid, and then using the ptrace system call. NOTE: the vendor states "there is no kernel bug here.

Patch / fix

  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.3.3-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8709

  • linux Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.13.0-103.150
  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-51.72
  • linux-raspi2 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1038.45
  • linux-lts-wily Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.2.0-22.27~14.04.1
  • linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.19.0-75.83~14.04.1
  • linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.16.0-57.77~14.04.1
  • linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.4.0-51.72~14.04.1
  • linux-snapdragon Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1042.46

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-8709

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 4.4.49-92.11.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 4.4.49-92.11.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +3 more 4.4.49-92.11.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP2 4.4.49-92.11.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP1 3.12.58-14.1
  • kernel-compute SLE Real Time 12 SP1 3.12.58-14.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP1 3.12.58-14.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP1 3.12.58-14.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:0575-1SUSE-SU-2016:1764-1SUSE-SU-2016:1046-1SUSE-SU-2016:1045-1SUSE-SU-2016:1039-1SUSE-SU-2016:1041-1

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-2015-8709 updated cvss 6.0

Kernel: ptrace: potential privilege escalation in user namespaces

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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 3.0 7.0 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-264 Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls
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.