published February 17, 2010
The load_elf_binary function in fs/binfmt_elf.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.32.8 on the x86_64 platform does not ensure that the ELF interpreter is available before a call to the SET_PERSONALITY macro, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) via a 32-bit application that attempts to execute a 64-bit application and then triggers a segmentation fault, as demonstrated by amd64_killer, related to the flush_old_exec function.