CVE-2010-4250
Memory leak in the inotify_init1 function in fs/notify/inotify/inotify_user.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37 allows local users to…
- 4.9MediumCVSS base score
- 0.76%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 45% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
Memory leak in the inotify_init1 function in fs/notify/inotify/inotify_user.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37 allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via vectors involving failed attempts to create files.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list an Exploit-DB entry for it.
Show the exploits1
Exploit-DB1 entry
- Linux Kernel 2.6.x - 'inotify_init()' Memory Leak Local Denial of Service (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 35013dos, linuxpublished 24 Nov 2010Verified
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
- 19 months later
· 19 months later
Published
- 12 years later
· 12 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 | Medium4.9 | AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.76% · top 45% of all CVEs (10 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.9.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
5
- http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.37 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=a2ae4cc9a16e211c8a128ba10d22a85431f093ab (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- [oss-security] 20101124 Re: CVE request: kernel: inotify memory leak (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/a2ae4cc9a16e211c8a128ba10d22a85431f093ab (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=656830 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_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-2010-4223 (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-2010-4250)Record last updated .