CVE Database›Document archive›CVE-2015-8709

CVE-2015-8709

Kernel: ptrace: potential privilege escalation in user namespaces

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Severity

Important

Red Hat Product Security

6

CVSS 2.0

Review impact separately from score.

Published · December 12, 2015

Updated · November 22, 2025

Description

A privilege-escalation vulnerability was discovered in the Linux kernel built with User Namespace (CONFIG_USER_NS) support. The flaw occurred when the ptrace() system call was used on a root-owned process to enter a user namespace. A privileged namespace user could exploit this flaw to potentially escalate their privileges on the system, outside the original namespace.

Statement

This issue does not affect the versions of the kernel package as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7 and Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2.

CVSS score applicability

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation

No mitigation is specified in collected source.

CVSS / CWE

CVSS 2.0 · 6
AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

CWE-271 · Privilege Dropping / Lowering Errors