CVE-2008-2365
Race condition in the ptrace and utrace support in the Linux kernel 2.6.9 through 2.6.25, as used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4,…
- 4.7MediumCVSS base score
- 0.53%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 55% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 2Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
Race condition in the ptrace and utrace support in the Linux kernel 2.6.9 through 2.6.25, as used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4, allows local users to cause a denial of service (oops) via a long series of PTRACE_ATTACH ptrace calls to another user's process that trigger a conflict between utrace_detach and report_quiescent, related to "late ptrace_may_attach() check" and "race around &dead_engine_ops setting," a different vulnerability than CVE-2007-0771 and CVE-2008-1514. NOTE: this issue might only affect kernel versions before 2.6.16.x.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list 2 Exploit-DB entries for it.
Show the exploits2
Exploit-DB2 entries
- Linux Kernel 2.6.9 < 2.6.25 (RHEL 4) - utrace and ptrace Local Denial of Service (1) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 31965dos, linuxpublished 25 Jun 2008Verified
- Linux Kernel 2.6.9 < 2.6.25 (RHEL 4) - utrace and ptrace Local Denial of Service (2) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 31966dos, linuxpublished 25 Jun 2008Verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By redhat
- 40 days later
· 40 days later
Published
- 16 years later
· 16 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 2.0 | Medium4.7 | AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.53% · top 55% of all CVEs (9 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.7.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
17
- linux-kernel-ptraceattach-dos(43567) (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_XFx_transferred
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.25.y.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=f5b40e363ad6041a96e3da32281d8faa191597b9 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- 1020362 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
- http://sources.redhat.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/tests/ptrace-tests/tests/late-ptrace-may-attach-check.c?cvsroot=systemtap (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- 29945 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.25.y.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=5ecfbae093f0c37311e89b29bfc0c9d586eace87 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- [oss-security] 20080714 Re: CVE-2008-2365 kernel: ptrace: Crash on PTRACE_{ATTACH,DETACH} race -- affecting kernel versions <= 2.6.25 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- 3965 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SREASONx_transferred
- oval:org.mitre.oval:def:10749 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entrysignaturex_refsource_OVALx_transferred
- 30850 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=449359 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.25.y.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=f358166a9405e4f1d8e50d8f415c26d95505b6de (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- 31107 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- [oss-security] 20080626 CVE-2008-2365 kernel: ptrace: Crash on PTRACE_{ATTACH,DETACH} race -- affecting kernel versions <= 2.6.25 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- USN-625-1 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_UBUNTUx_transferred
- RHSA-2008:0508 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
- [linux-kernel] 20070508 Re: [PATCH -utrace] Move utrace into task_struct (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2008-2361 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2008-2365)Record last updated .