Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2017-17052 json

The mm_init function in kernel/fork.c in the Linux kernel before 4.12.10 does not clear the ->exe_file member of a new process's mm_struct,…

published 2017-11-29 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-8220

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 31%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The mm_init function in kernel/fork.c in the Linux kernel before 4.12.10 does not clear the ->exe_file member of a new process's mm_struct, allowing a local attacker to achieve a use-after-free or possibly have unspecified other impact by running a specially crafted program.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.9.46, 4.12.10
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.12.12-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-17052

  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.13.0-1002.5
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.13.0-32.35~16.04.1
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.13.0-1005.7

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-17052

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

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-2017-17052 updated cvss 6.1

kernel: use-after-free in kernel/fork.c:mm_init function

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, kernel-alt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-tools, +3 more
    affected: no fix available
  • 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 kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, +1 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

0.37% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 31% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

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
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.