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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.9

CVE-2009-2848 json

The execve function in the Linux kernel, possibly 2.6.30-rc6 and earlier, does not properly clear the current->clear_child_tid pointer, whi…

published 2009-08-18 17 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2009-2838

cvss
5.9
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 44%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The execve function in the Linux kernel, possibly 2.6.30-rc6 and earlier, does not properly clear the current->clear_child_tid pointer, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) or possibly gain privileges via a clone system call with CLONE_CHILD_SETTID or CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID enabled, which is not properly handled during thread creation and exit.

Patch / fix

  • kernel RHEL 4 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
  • kernel-smp RHEL 4 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
  • kernel-xenU RHEL 4 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
  • kernel-hugemem RHEL 4 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
  • kernel-largesmp RHEL 4 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
  • kernel RHEL 5 2.6.18-164.el5
  • kernel-PAE RHEL 5 2.6.18-164.el5
  • kernel-xen RHEL 5 2.6.18-164.el5

red hat advisories RHSA-2009:1438RHSA-2009:1243RHSA-2009:1550RHSA-2009:1466RHSA-2009:1239

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-2009-2848 updated cvss 7.2

kernel: execve: must clear current->clear_child_tid

  • Red Hat MRG Realtime for RHEL 5 Server kernel-rt 2.6.24.7-132.el5rt, kernel-rt-trace 2.6.24.7-132.el5rt, kernel-rt-vanilla 2.6.24.7-132.el5rt, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common 2.6.24.7-132.el5rt
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1239
  • Red Hat Desktop version 3 kernel 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-smp 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-BOOT 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-source 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-unsupported 2.4.21-63.EL, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1550
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) kernel 2.6.18-164.el5, kernel-PAE 2.6.18-164.el5, kernel-xen 2.6.18-164.el5, kernel-kdump 2.6.18-164.el5, kernel-debuginfo-common 2.6.18-164.el5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1243
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 kernel 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-smp 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-BOOT 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-source 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-unsupported 2.4.21-63.EL, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1550
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 kernel 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-smp 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-xenU 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-largesmp 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1438
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) kernel 2.6.18-164.el5, kernel-PAE 2.6.18-164.el5, kernel-xen 2.6.18-164.el5, kernel-kdump 2.6.18-164.el5, kernel-debuginfo-common 2.6.18-164.el5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1243
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 kernel 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-smp 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-xenU 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-largesmp 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1438
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 kernel 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-smp 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-BOOT 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-source 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-unsupported 2.4.21-63.EL, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1550
show 4 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 kernel 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-smp 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-xenU 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-largesmp 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1438
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS (v. 5.3 server) kernel 2.6.18-128.8.1.el5, kernel-PAE 2.6.18-128.8.1.el5, kernel-xen 2.6.18-128.8.1.el5, kernel-kdump 2.6.18-128.8.1.el5, kernel-debuginfo-common 2.6.18-128.8.1.el5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1466
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 kernel 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-smp 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-BOOT 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-source 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.4.21-63.EL, kernel-unsupported 2.4.21-63.EL, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1550
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 kernel 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-smp 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-xenU 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-hugemem 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL, kernel-largesmp 2.6.9-89.0.11.EL
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1438

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

0.52% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 44% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • openwall.com http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/08/04/2 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • openwall.com http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/08/05/10 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns 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.