this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] atzanteol 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This may be difficult to exploit in practice - I don't think most user applications use syslog.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Unless you have user access to a system with gcc on it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

You still need some privileged process to exploit. Glibc code doesn't get any higher privileges than the rest of the process. From kernel's point of view, it's just a part of the program like any other code.

So if triggering the bug in your own process was enough for privilege escalation, it would also be a critical security vulnerability in the kernel - it can't allow you to execute a magic sequence of instructions in your process and become a root, that completely destroys any semblance of process / user isolation.