Tag Archives: exploit

Easy-to-exploit rooting flaw puts Linux PCs at risk

The flaw allows attackers with limited access to Linux computers to gain root privileges.

Linux PCs at risk

Tux, the Linux mascot. Credit: Larry Ewing and Garrett LeSage via Wikimedia Commons

The maintainers of Linux distributions are rushing to patch a privilege escalation vulnerability that’s already being exploited in the wild and poses a serious risk to servers, desktops and other devices that run the OS.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2016-5195, has existed in the Linux kernel for the past nine years. This means that many kernel versions that are used in a variety of computers, servers, routers, embedded devices and hardware appliances are affected.