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Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

CVE-2004-0427

Low
2.1/10

Summary

The do_fork function in Linux 2.4.x before 2.4.26, and 2.6.x before 2.6.6, does not properly decrement the mm_count counter when an error occurs after the mm_struct for a child process has been activated, which triggers a memory leak that allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion) via the clone (CLONE_VM) system call.

  • LOW
  • LOCAL
  • NONE
  • NONE
  • NONE
  • PARTIAL

CWE-401 - Missing release of memory after effective lifetime (memory leak)

'Missing release of memory after effective lifetime (memory leak)' is a weakness that occurs when software doesn't effectively release allocated memory after it is used. If not addressed, this enables attackers to launch denial of service attacks (by crashing or hanging the program) or take advantage of other unexpected behavior resulting from low memory conditions.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published