Six-Year-Old Linux Kernel Flaw Lets Unprivileged Users Read Root-Owned Files
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Six-Year-Old Linux Kernel Flaw Lets Unprivileged Users Read Root-Owned Files

Written By
MN
Marcus Nestor
Jun 12, 2026

A proof-of-concept is available as ssh-keysign-pwn, taking advantage of the __ptrace_may_access() function in the Linux kernel, skipping the dumpable check when task->mm == NULL. As such, do_exit() runs exit_mm() before exit_files() (no mm, fds still there) and pidfd_getfd(2) succeeds in that window when the caller’s uid matches the target’s.
MN

Marcus Nestor

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