Where
-Infinity
0
Severity
7.9
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H

nsenter --join-cgroup (sys-utils/nsenter.c) opens the target cgroup v2 cgroup.procs while still running as root, writes nsenter's own PID to join that cgroup, and then leaves the descriptor open across later namespace/credential transitions and execve(). The FD is neither closed nor marked OCLOEXEC. Linux performs later cgroup migration checks using the credentials captured in file->fcred at open time, so a program executed inside an attacker-controlled target inherits root's cgroup-migration authority even after dropping to an unprivileged UID with no capabilities. A privileged operator must invoke the documented --join-cgroup operation against the attacker-controlled target (nsenter is not SUID on typical distros). After the FD is inherited, an unprivileged process can migrate an unrelated host root PID into an attacker-owned systemd user-service cgroup and terminate it via cgroup.kill. This is not an autonomous LPE. Introduced by b40650b71a74 (2023-06-28); first released in util-linux v2.40. Affects v2.40 through v2.42.2 and current master (confirmed on Debian 13 util-linux 2.41-5). No upstream fix as of 2026-08-24. Reported upstream by 4drez. GHSA-55fx-f4gg-cfhj.

1 / 2
Source: Red Hat
First published (updated )
Severity
7

nsenter --join-cgroup (sys-utils/nsenter.c) opens the target cgroup v2 cgroup.procs while still running as root, writes nsenter's own PID to join that cgroup, and then leaves the descriptor open across later namespace/credential transitions and execve(). The FD is neither closed nor marked OCLOEXEC. Linux performs later cgroup migration checks using the credentials captured in file->fcred at open time, so a program executed inside an attacker-controlled target inherits root's cgroup-migration authority even after dropping to an unprivileged UID with no capabilities. A privileged operator must invoke the documented --join-cgroup operation against the attacker-controlled target (nsenter is not SUID on typical distros). After the FD is inherited, an unprivileged process can migrate an unrelated host root PID into an attacker-owned systemd user-service cgroup and terminate it via cgroup.kill. This is not an autonomous LPE. Introduced by b40650b71a74 (2023-06-28); first released in util-linux v2.40. Affects v2.40 through v2.42.2 and current master (confirmed on Debian 13 util-linux 2.41-5). No upstream fix as of 2026-08-24. Reported upstream by 4drez. GHSA-55fx-f4gg-cfhj.

First published (updated )

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