RDS Protocol Bug Creates a Linux Kernel Hole, Now Fixed

Posted by timothy on Thursday October 21, 2010 @06:23AM from the what-does-the-sky-think-as-it-falls dept.

Trailrunner7 writes "The open-source Linux operating system contains a serious security flaw that can be exploited to gain superuser rights on a target system. The vulnerability, in the Linux implementation of the Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) protocol, affects unpatched versions of the Linux kernel, starting from 2.6.30, where the RDS protocol was first included." The article goes on to say, though, that "Linux installations are only vulnerable if the CONFIG_RDS kernel configuration option is set, and if there are no restrictions on unprivileged users loading packet family modules, as is the case on most stock distributions," and that Linus Torvalds has committed a fix.

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Re:If it were MS, it would be months later by man_of_mr_e · 2010-10-21 08:02 · Score: 1, Flamebait

If by "immediately fixed" you mean nearly two weeks being kept secret by the kernel team while they worked on it, and you were vulnerable.. and if by "distributed overnight" you mean probably several more days before the various distros make it availble...
This bug was reported to the kernel team on 10/12, not yesterday.

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