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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2016-2143 json

The fork implementation in the Linux kernel before 4.5 on s390 platforms mishandles the case of four page-table levels, which allows local…

published 2016-04-27 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-3244

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 46%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The fork implementation in the Linux kernel before 4.5 on s390 platforms mishandles the case of four page-table levels, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted application, related to arch/s390/include/asm/mmu_context.h and arch/s390/include/asm/pgalloc.h.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 3.2.79, 3.12.58, 3.16.35, 4.1.21, 4.4.6
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.4.6-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-2143

  • kernel RHEL 6 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
  • perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
  • python-perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
  • kernel-kdump RHEL 6 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
  • kernel-firmware RHEL 6 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 6 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
  • kernel-abi-whitelists RHEL 6 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 RHEL 6 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:2766RHSA-2016:1539

  • 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
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP1 3.12.58-14.1
  • kernel-compute_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP1 3.12.58-14.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-54.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-54.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:2074-1SUSE-SU-2016:1764-1SUSE-SU-2016:1707-1SUSE-SU-2016:1690-1SUSE-SU-2016:1672-1SUSE-SU-2016:1203-1

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-2016-2143 updated cvss 7.8

kernel: Fork of large process causes memory corruption

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1539
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-abi-whitelists 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) python-perf 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-abi-whitelists 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) python-perf 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-abi-whitelists 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2766
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-kdump 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1539
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) python-perf 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2766
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1539
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-abi-whitelists 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2766
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7, +1 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1539
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) python-perf 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-642.11.1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2766
show 2 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.28.2.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1539
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-trace-kvm 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

0.56% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 46% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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-20 Improper Input Validation
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.