Researchers Warn of Linux Kernel 'Dirty Pipe' Arbitrary File Overwrite Vulnerability
Mar 08, 2022
Linux distributions are in the process of issuing patches to address a newly disclosed security vulnerability in the kernel that could allow an attacker to overwrite arbitrary data into any read-only files and allow for a complete takeover of affected systems. Dubbed " Dirty Pipe " (CVE-2022-0847, CVSS score: 7.8) by IONOS software developer Max Kellermann, the flaw "leads to privilege escalation because unprivileged processes can inject code into root processes." Kellermann said the bug was discovered after digging into a support issue raised by one of the customers of the cloud and hosting provider that concerned a case of a "surprising kind of corruption" affecting web server access logs. The Linux kernel flaw is said to have existed since version 5.8 , with the vulnerability sharing similarities to that of Dirty Cow (CVE-2016-5195), which came to light in October 2016. "A flaw was found in the way the 'flags' member of the new pip