Although security flaws are usually detected in a very short time, there are some occasions when these errors can be detected very lateeven years later. In this case, a security flaw has been detected in the Linux kernels of version 3.X, that is, those of the year 2015.
This failure is that due to an error in memory management, a user could use Elf files to escalate permissions and thus gain root privileges on a computer where they should not have them, leading to numerous computer attacks.
Actually, the failure it was already discovered in its day, but it was thought that it was a simple memory failure that would not have any importance. However, now after the analysis by Qualys, they have realized that this error could be much more relevant than it seemed at first.
And the user will wonder how it can affect their security that an outdated kernel that are no longer used in modern distributions has a new bug. The answer lies in server operating systems, specifically Red Hat or Cent OS, and in operating systems with very long support, such as Debian.
This equipment have LTS versions with long life brackets, which still use an old version of this kernel. Even versions that came out this year have been affected, which have continued to opt for kernel from the 3.x branch instead of opting for the 4.x branch. For this reason, they have been affected by this vulnerability, something that teaches us that it is never too late to discover a major security flaw.
However, the corresponding security updates have already been released by the affected operating systems, which correct this error and allow users to continue working normally