CVE-2016-2854

high

Published 2016-05-02 · Modified 2026-05-06

💬 Discuss on Community ✚ Propose mitigation

CVSS v3

7.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v4 NEW

—

not yet in upstream

VIR risk

8.8

Description

The aufs module for the Linux kernel 3.x and 4.x does not properly maintain POSIX ACL xattr data, which allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging a group-writable setgid directory.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood

75%

Patch ETA

—

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

No mitigations published for this CVE yet.

The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.

✚ Propose a mitigation on Community → Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here with source_tier=community-verified.

Exploits

Public proof-of-concept code below. AS-IS, for defenders and authorised testing only.

Exploit-DB

EDB-41761 local linux

halfdog · 2016-02-19

AUFS (Ubuntu 15.10) - 'allow_userns' Fuse/Xattr User Namespaces Privilege Escalation

Source code queued for fetch — refresh in a moment.

OS impact

OS	Version	Status	Fixed in
debian	bookworm	fixed	`3.18-1~exp1`
debian	bullseye	fixed	`3.18-1~exp1`
debian	forky	fixed	`3.18-1~exp1`
debian	sid	fixed	`3.18-1~exp1`
debian	trixie	fixed	`3.18-1~exp1`
linux-kernel		affected

References

CWEs

CWE-269

Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.