crypto/algif_skcipher.c in the Linux kernel before 4.4.2 does not verify that a setkey operation has been performed on an AF_ALG socket bef…

published 2016-11-28 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-8824

cvss: 5.5; version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.5%; EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 44%
public exploits: 0; none known

crypto/algif_skcipher.c in the Linux kernel before 4.4.2 does not verify that a setkey operation has been performed on an AF_ALG socket before an accept system call is processed, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) via a crafted application that does not supply a key, related to the lrw_crypt function in crypto/lrw.c.

Patch / fix

distros 4 links 2

debian ubuntu red hat suse

linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.4.2-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-8970

linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.19.0-59.65~14.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-8970

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-rt RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
kernel-rt-kvm RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
kernel-rt-trace RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
kernel-rt-debug-kvm RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
kernel-rt-trace-kvm RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
kernel RHEL 7 3.10.0-693.el7
perf RHEL 7 3.10.0-693.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:2437 RHSA-2017:2077 RHSA-2017:1842 RHSA-2017:2444

kernel-rt SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-69.5.1
kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-69.5.1
kernel-rt_trace SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-69.5.1
kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-69.5.1
kernel-ec2 SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 3.0.101-100.1
kernel-pae SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 3.0.101-100.1
kernel-xen SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 3.0.101-100.1
kernel-syms SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 3.0.101-100.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:2342-1 SUSE-SU-2017:1301-1 SUSE-SU-2017:0494-1

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-2015-8970 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 5.5

kernel: crypto: GPF in lrw_crypt caused by null-deref

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel 3.10.0-693.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-693.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel 3.10.0-693.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-693.el7, +1 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1842
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode EUS (v. 7.3) perf 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, +1 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:2437
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1842
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional EUS (v. 7.3) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:2437
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time (v. 7) kernel-rt 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time for NFV (v. 7) kernel-rt 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-kvm 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-trace-kvm 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:2077
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel 3.10.0-693.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-kdump 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-693.el7, +6 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1842
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.3) perf 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel-kdump 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, +6 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:2437
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 3.10.0-693.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1842

show 4 more

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional EUS (v. 7.3) kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 3.10.0-514.28.1.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:2437
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel 3.10.0-693.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-693.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1842
Red Hat MRG Realtime for RHEL 6 Server v.2 kernel-rt 3.10.0-514.rt56.231.el6rt, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-514.rt56.231.el6rt, kernel-rt-vanilla 3.10.0-514.rt56.231.el6rt, kernel-rt-firmware 3.10.0-514.rt56.231.el6rt, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-514.rt56.231.el6rt
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:2444
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 Client (v. 7) kernel-headers 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) kernel-headers 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) kernel-headers 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) kernel-headers 3.10.0-693.el7
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

0.52% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 44% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.0	5.5	CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD	2.0	4.9	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness

CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

git.kernel.org /cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=dd504589577d8e8e70f51f997ad487a4cb6c026f
issue-tracking, patch, vendor-advisory
github.com /torvalds/linux/commit/dd504589577d8e8e70f51f997ad487a4cb6c026f
issue-tracking, patch, third-party-advisory
access.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2017:2437
vendor-advisory
access.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2017:2444
vendor-advisory
access.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2017:2077
vendor-advisory
access.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2017:1842
vendor-advisory
kernel.org /pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.4.2
release-notes
openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2016/11/04/3
mailing-list, third-party-advisory
bugzilla.redhat.com /show_bug.cgi?id=1386286
issue-tracking
securityfocus.com /bid/94217
vdb-entry, third-party-advisory
groups.google.com /forum/#%21msg/syzkaller/frb2XrB5aWk/xCXzkIBcDAAJ

Sources

CVE List CVE-2015-8970
NVD CVE-2015-8970

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.

Summary