Exploited in the wild · Linux kernel · CVSS 7.0 · published 10 November 2016
Dirty COW: CVE-2016-5195
A race condition in the kernel's copy-on-write handling that lets a local user write to read-only files and gain root. Below is its status on each Linux distribution past end of life, from the vendors' own security trackers.
- 0end-of-life systems without a free fix
- 9fixed or not affected
Dirty COW on end-of-life Linux
| Distribution | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|
| CentOS 6 | Fixed | kernel 2.6.32-642.6.2.el6, 26 October 2016 |
| CentOS 7 | Fixed | kernel 3.10.0-327.36.3.el7, 24 October 2016 |
| RHEL 7 | Fixed | kernel 3.10.0-327.36.3.el7, 24 October 2016 |
| CentOS 8 | Fixed before release | published before RHEL 8 shipped |
| Ubuntu 16.04 | Fixed | 4.4.0-45.66 |
| Ubuntu 18.04 | Fixed before release | published before this release shipped |
| Ubuntu 20.04 | Fixed before release | published before this release shipped |
| Debian 10 | Fixed before release | published before this release shipped |
| Debian 11 | Fixed before release | published before this release shipped |
From the Red Hat security data (CentOS and RHEL), the Ubuntu CVE tracker and the Debian security tracker, 29 October 2026. CentOS received Red Hat's fixes only until its own end of life; later fixes went to paid Red Hat support. Fixes marked Ubuntu Pro need a paid subscription. Where a tracker has no entry, the version in the distribution's repository is checked against the NVD range.
The Linux kernel versions we track
| Version | CVE-2016-5195 |
|---|---|
| Linux kernel 2.6.32 | Affected |
| Linux kernel 3.10 | Affected |
| Linux kernel 4.4 | Affected |
| Linux kernel 4.14 | Not affected |
| Linux kernel 4.15 | Not affected |
| Linux kernel 4.18 | Not affected |
| Linux kernel 4.19 | Not affected |
| Linux kernel 5.4 | Not affected |
| Linux kernel 5.10 | Not affected |
For the upstream version, according to the US National Vulnerability Database. A distribution package may carry its own fix; the table above shows that.
What the NVD record says
Race condition in mm/gup.c in the Linux kernel 2.x through 4.x before 4.8.3 allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging incorrect handling of a copy-on-write (COW) feature to write to a read-only memory mapping, as exploited in the wild in October 2016, aka "Dirty COW."
Score 7.0 (High), published 10 November 2016. Listed in the CISA catalogue of known exploited vulnerabilities on 3 March 2022. Read the NVD entry
Affected upstream versions of Linux kernel
- linux kernel from 2.6.22 before 3.2.83
- linux kernel from 3.3 before 3.4.113
- linux kernel from 3.5 before 3.10.104
- linux kernel from 3.11 before 3.12.66
- linux kernel from 3.13 before 3.16.38
- linux kernel from 3.17 before 3.18.44
- linux kernel from 3.19 before 4.1.35
- linux kernel from 4.2 before 4.4.26
What you can do
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