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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2017-2616 json

A race condition was found in util-linux before 2.32.1 in the way su handled the management of child processes.

published 8y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2017-11777

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 20%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A race condition was found in util-linux before 2.32.1 in the way su handled the management of child processes. A local authenticated attacker could use this flaw to kill other processes with root privileges under specific conditions.

Patch / fix

  • util-linux_project util-linux 2.32.1
  • shadow Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:4.4-4
  • coreutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 8.20-1
  • util-linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.29.2-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-2616

  • shadow Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:4.1.5.1-1ubuntu9.4
  • shadow Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:4.2-3.1ubuntu5.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-2616

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

  • coreutils RHEL 6 8.4-46.el6
  • coreutils-libs RHEL 6 8.4-46.el6
  • util-linux RHEL 7 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2
  • uuidd RHEL 7 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2
  • libuuid RHEL 7 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2
  • libblkid RHEL 7 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2
  • libmount RHEL 7 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:0654RHSA-2017:0907

  • coreutils SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 8.12-6.25.33.3.1
  • util-linux SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +3 more 2.28-44.3.1
  • python-libmount SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 2.28-44.3.3
  • util-linux-systemd SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 2.28-44.3.3
  • util-linux SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1, SLED 12 SP1 +2 more 2.25-40.1
  • python-libmount SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1, SLED 12 SP1 2.25-40.2
  • util-linux-systemd SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1, SLED 12 SP1 2.25-40.1
  • util-linux SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12-LTSS 2.25-24.10.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:0866-1SUSE-SU-2017:0554-1SUSE-SU-2017:0555-1SUSE-SU-2017:0553-1

  • util-linux openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.36.2-3.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11282-1

  • shadow Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +15 more 4.2.1-r11
  • shadow Alpine 3.6, Alpine 3.5 4.2.1-r7

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2017-2616

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Is CVE-2017-2616 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2017-2616 updated cvss 5.5

util-linux: Sending SIGKILL to other processes with root privileges via su

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 coreutils
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) uuidd 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libuuid 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libblkid 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libmount 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, util-linux 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) libuuid-devel 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libblkid-devel 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libmount-devel 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, util-linux-debuginfo 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) uuidd 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libuuid 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libblkid 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libmount 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, util-linux 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) libuuid-devel 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libblkid-devel 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libmount-devel 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, util-linux-debuginfo 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0907
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) coreutils 8.4-46.el6, coreutils-libs 8.4-46.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) coreutils 8.4-46.el6, coreutils-libs 8.4-46.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) coreutils 8.4-46.el6, coreutils-libs 8.4-46.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0654
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) uuidd 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libuuid 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libblkid 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libmount 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, util-linux 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) libmount-devel 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, util-linux-debuginfo 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0907
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) coreutils 8.4-46.el6, coreutils-libs 8.4-46.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0654
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) uuidd 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libuuid 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libblkid 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, libmount 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, util-linux 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) libmount-devel 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2, util-linux-debuginfo 2.23.2-33.el7_3.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0907
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 util-linux, shadow-utils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 uuidd, libuuid, libblkid, shadow-utils, util-linux-ng Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 coreutils, shadow-utils
    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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
last yr.

Exploit prediction

0.28% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 20% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 5.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.0 4.7 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.7 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Affected products

  • Linux util-linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-267 Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization

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.