CVE-2014-3631

high

Published 2014-09-28 · Modified 2026-05-06

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CVSS v3

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CVSS v4 NEW

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not yet in upstream

VIR risk

8.2

Description

The assoc_array_gc function in the associative-array implementation in lib/assoc_array.c in the Linux kernel before 3.16.3 does not properly implement garbage collection, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via multiple "keyctl newring" operations followed by a "keyctl timeout" operation.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood

55%

Patch ETA

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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-36268 dos linux

Emeric Nasi · 2015-03-04

Linux Kernel 3.16.3 - Associative Array Garbage Collection Crash (PoC)

Source code queued for fetch — refresh in a moment.

OS impact

Linux kernel Affected 1 release

Version	Status	Fixed in
—	Affected	`3.14.19`

Debian Fixed 5 releases

Version	Status	Fixed in
trixie	Fixed	`3.16.3-1`
sid	Fixed	`3.16.3-1`
forky	Fixed	`3.16.3-1`
bullseye	Fixed	`3.16.3-1`
bookworm	Fixed	`3.16.3-1`

References

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

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