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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2017-15951 json

The KEYS subsystem in the Linux kernel before 4.13.10 does not correctly synchronize the actions of updating versus finding a key in the "n…

published 2017-10-28 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-7367

cvss
7.8
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 36%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The KEYS subsystem in the Linux kernel before 4.13.10 does not correctly synchronize the actions of updating versus finding a key in the "negative" state to avoid a race condition, which allows local users to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via crafted system calls.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.4.95, 4.9.59, 4.13.10
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.13.10-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-15951

  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-101.124
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.4.0-1003.3
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1041.50
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.13.0-1002.5
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1034.34
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.13.0-32.35~16.04.1
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1010.15
  • linux-oem Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.13.0-1010.11

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-15951

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 SLE Real Time 12 SP3 4.4.120-3.8.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP3 4.4.120-3.8.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP3 4.4.120-3.8.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP3 4.4.120-3.8.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 4.4.120-92.70.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 4.4.120-92.70.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +3 more 4.4.120-92.70.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP2 4.4.120-92.70.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:0986-1SUSE-SU-2018:0785-1SUSE-SU-2018:0786-1

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-2017-15951 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: Race condition in the KEYS subsystem

  • 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, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 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

0.41% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 36% 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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/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.