The Register: Clever attack exploits fully-patched Linux kernel
"A recently published attack exploiting newer versions of the Linux kernel is getting plenty of notice because it works even when security enhancements are running and the bug is virtually impossible to detect in source code reviews. The vulnerability is located in several parts of Linux, including one that implements functions known as net/tun. Although the code correctly checks to make sure the tun variable doesn't point to NULL, the compiler removes the lines responsible for that inspection during optimization routines. The result: When the variable points to zero, the kernel tries to access forbidden pieces of memory, leading to a compromise of the box running the OS.
The "NULL pointer dereference" bug has been confirmed in versions 2.6.30 and 2.6.30.1 of the Linux kernel, which Spengler said has been incorporated into only one vendor build: version 5 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that's used in test environments. The exploit works only when a security extension knows as SELinux, or Security-Enhanced Linux, is enabled. Conversely, it also works when audio software known as PulseAudio is installed.
An exploitation scenario would most likely involve the attack being used to escalate user privileges, when combined with the exploitation of another component - say, a PHP application. By itself, Spengler's exploit does not work remotely. With all the hoops to jump through, the exploit requires a fair amount of effort to be successful. Still, Spengler said it took him less than four hours to write a fully weaponized exploit that works on 32- and 64-bit versions of Linux, including the build offered by Red Hat. He told The Register he published the exploit after it became clear Linus Torvalds and other developers responsible for the Linux kernel didn't regard the bug as a security risk."By the time I wrote the exploit, there was a fix floating around, but it didn't look like it was going to be going into any of the stable releases," he said. "It was just a trivial 'oops' instead of something that could give you arbitrary code execution in the kernel."
