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SYNTHESIS OF THE VULNERABILITY

A local attacker can use ptrace() on an ancestor process, in order
to generate an infinite loop.

Severity: 1/4

Consequences: denial of service of computer

Provenance: user shell

Means of attack: no proof of concept, no attack

Ability of attacker: expert (4/4)

Confidence: confirmed by the editor (5/5)

Diffusion of the vulnerable configuration: high (3/3)

Creation date: 02/02/2010

IMPACTED PRODUCTS

– OpenBSD

DESCRIPTION OF THE VULNERABILITY

The ptrace() system call controls the execution of a process.

However, if ptrace() is called on a parent process of the current
process, a loop occurs in the process graph handling.

A local attacker can thus use ptrace() on an ancestor process, in
order to generate an infinite loop.

CHARACTERISTICS

Identifiers: BID-38039, VIGILANCE-VUL-9400

http://vigilance.fr/vulnerability/OpenBSD-infinite-loop-of-ptrace-9400