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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2019-8980 json

A memory leak in the kernel_read_file function in fs/exec.c in the Linux kernel through 4.20.11 allows attackers to cause a denial of servi…

published 2019-02-21 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-18367

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
5.9%
EPSS 5.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 93%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A memory leak in the kernel_read_file function in fs/exec.c in the Linux kernel through 4.20.11 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by triggering vfs_read failures.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.9.163, 4.14.106, 4.19.28, 4.20.15, 5.0.1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.19.28-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-8980

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-47.50
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1035.37
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1029.31~16.04.1
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1029.31
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-47.50~16.04.1
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.18.0-17.18~18.04.1
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1031.31
  • linux-oem Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1035.40

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-8980

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

  • kernel-rt RHEL 8 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8
  • kernel-rt-kvm RHEL 8 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8
  • kernel-rt-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8
  • kernel-rt-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8
  • kernel-rt-debug-kvm RHEL 8 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8
  • kernel-rt-debug-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8
  • kernel-rt-debug-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8
  • kernel-rt-modules-extra RHEL 8 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:1567RHSA-2020:1769

  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 4.12.14-5.24.1
  • kernel-syms-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 4.12.14-5.24.1
  • kernel-source-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 4.12.14-5.24.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 4.12.14-150.14.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 4.12.14-150.14.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15, SLE Module for Legacy 15, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 +2 more 4.12.14-150.14.2
  • kernel-vanilla SLE Module for Development Tools 15 4.12.14-150.14.2
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 4.12.14-150.14.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:0785-1SUSE-SU-2019:0784-1SUSE-SU-2019:0767-1SUSE-SU-2019:0765-1

  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.58.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.58.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.58.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.58.1
  • kernel-vanilla openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.58.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.58.1
  • kernel-obs-build openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.58.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2019:1193-1

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-2019-8980 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: memory leak in the kernel_read_file function in fs/exec.c allows to cause a denial of service

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, kernel-alt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-tools, +3 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-193.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel 4.18.0-193.el8, bpftool 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel-core 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel-tools 4.18.0-193.el8, python3-perf 4.18.0-193.el8, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1769
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1567
  • 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

5.92% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 93% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.8 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
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.