A flaw was found in the linux kernels implementation of associative arrays. The add_key systemcall and KEYCTL_UPDATE operations allowed for a NULL payload with a nonzero length. When accessing the payload within this length parameters value, an unprivileged user could trivially cause a NULL pointer dereference (kernel oops). Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=5649645d725c73df4302428ee4e02c869248b4c5
Statement: This issue affects the Linux kernel packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5,6,7, MRG-2 and realtime kernels. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 has transitioned to Production phase 3. During the Production 3 Phase, Critical impact Security Advisories (RHSAs) and selected Urgent Priority Bug Fix Advisories (RHBAs) may be released as they become available. At this time this bug is not meet this critera and is unlikley to be fixed for these releases. The official life cycle policy can be reviewed here: http://redhat.com/rhel/lifecycle Future Linux kernel updates for the products in production phase 1 and 2, namely Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7 and MRG-2 may address this issue.
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 Extended Update Support Via RHSA-2019:1946 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1946
This bug is now closed. Further updates for individual products will be reflected on the CVE page(s): https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2017-15274