CVE-2021-3493
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Actively Exploited
CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) estimates a 49.2% chance this CVE is exploited in the wild within the next 30 days — higher than 99% of all CVEs. It complements CVSS: a high EPSS on a mid-severity CVE can still be urgent.
The overlayfs stacking file system in Linux kernel does not properly validate the application of file capabilities against user namespaces, which could lead to privilege escalation.
Description
The overlayfs implementation in the linux kernel did not properly validate with respect to user namespaces the setting of file capabilities on files in an underlying file system. Due to the combination of unprivileged user namespaces along with a patch carried in the Ubuntu kernel to allow unprivileged overlay mounts, an attacker could use this to gain elevated privileges.
Affected
Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.
Remediation
No guide yetNo remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:
References (7)
SSVC — Action Prioritization
SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.
CVSS
- Attack Vector
- LOCAL
- Complexity
- LOW
- Privileges
- LOW
- User Interaction
- NONE
- Scope
- UNCHANGED
- Confidentiality
- HIGH
- Integrity
- HIGH
- Availability
- HIGH
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