What is CVE-2017-1000255?

CVE-2017-1000255 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, classified as a Out-of-bounds Write flaw (CWE-787). CVE-2017-1000255 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2017-1000255?

CVE-2017-1000255 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2017-1000255?

No patch is currently available for CVE-2017-1000255. Monitor the NIST NVD and your Linux distribution's security advisories for updates.

Is CVE-2017-1000255 actively exploited?

CVE-2017-1000255 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787)?

The product writes data past the end or before the beginning of the intended buffer. See MITRE CWE for full details: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/787.html

CVE-2017-1000255

Medium

On Linux running on PowerPC hardware (Power8 or later) a user process can craft a signal frame and then do a sigreturn so that the kernel will take an exception (interrupt), and use the r1 value *from the signal frame* as the kernel stack pointer. As part of the exception entry the content of the signal frame is written to the kernel stack, allowing an attacker to overwrite arbitrary locations with arbitrary values. The exception handling does produce an oops, and a panic if panic_on_oops=1, but only after kernel memory has been over written. This flaw was introduced in commit: "5d176f751ee3 (powerpc: tm: Enable transactional memory (TM) lazily for userspace)" which was merged upstream into v4.9-rc1. Please note that kernels built with CONFIG_PPC_TRANSACTIONAL_MEM=n are not vulnerable.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2017-10-30

Last modified 2026-05-13

CVSS version 3.0

Patch available

Awaiting data

CVSS 3.0 score

5.5

out of 10

Medium

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

High

Availability

None

Vector string

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Weakness type

CWE-787

CVE-2017-1000255 is a Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability

What is Out-of-bounds Write?

The product writes data past the end or before the beginning of the intended buffer. Learn more on MITRE CWE

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2017-1000255 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Securityfocus
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101264

Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
Red Hat
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0654
Red Hat
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-1000255

Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory

Details

CVE ID CVE-2017-1000255

Severity Medium

CVSS score 5.5 / 10

CVSS version 3.0

Published 2017-10-30

Modified 2026-05-13

KEV No

Patch Awaiting data

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-1000255?

CVE-2017-1000255 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 , classified as an Out-of-bounds Write flaw (CWE-787) . CVE-2017-1000255 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2017-1000255?

CVE-2017-1000255 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.0). The vector string is CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2017-1000255?

No patch is currently available for CVE-2017-1000255. Monitor the NIST NVD and your Linux distribution's security advisories for updates.
Is CVE-2017-1000255 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2017-1000255 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
What is Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787)?

The product writes data past the end or before the beginning of the intended buffer. View CWE-787 on MITRE CWE →