New Critical Linux Vulnerability Effects Most Systems

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 12:48:11 -0400
critical, exploit, unix, vulnerability

I'm not going to pretend I understand the naming for this bug, but this new vulnerability is very serious, one of the most serious in years, and should be addressed immediately.

This exploit, dubbed Dirty Cow, allows for users to get root level access through a privilege escalation bug that has been present in most versions of the Linux operating system going back a number of years. This bug has been patched by all of the linux distributions in the last few days so everyone should be able to patch their systems.

DoIT is actively patching their systems as we speak, and we encourage all Linux admins to patch their systems as soon as possible, especially if they are accessible from the Internet.

I've included a link to the article about the bug, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/10/most-serious-linux-privilege-escalation-bug-ever-is-under-active-exploit/

Damian Doyle

Senior Director of Enterprise Infrastructure

damian@umbc.edu