Serious bug in Linux kernel 2.2.0 allows users to crash the system

Jan 28, 1999, 00:23 (4 Talkback[s])

Dan Burcaw posted to the Linux-kernel mailing list:

There is a bug that works only on the 2.2.0 kernel that will allow root and non-root users to crash the machine (the system reboots).

To replicate this bug do following:

Take any core file, and as normal user or root run: ldd core

The machine will reboot, saying that it cannot get execution permissions for ./core

As far as I can tell, this problem only affects x86 machines running 2.2.0. I know that PPC is not affected.

Note: This problem does not occur in kernels before 2.2.0, and is apparently fixed in 2.2.0ac1.

Thanks to Gennady Gurov (gurov@frii.com) for discovering this problem.

Dan

Terra Firma Design & Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.

voice (970) 416-9821 in Fort Collins
email dburcaw@terraplex.com
website http://www.terraplex.com

Linux has announced that this will be fixed in 2.2.1, due in a few days. -lt ed.