The ELF core dump code counted the number of dumpable VM map entries, allocated a buffer for the corresponding program headers, then iterated over the map a second time to populate them. A process sharing the address space via rfork(2) can mutate the map between the two passes, causing the second pass to write program headers past the end of the buffer. An unprivileged local user sharing an address space with a process that dumps core can trigger an out-of-bounds write on the kernel heap, potentially leading to privilege escalation.

The ELF core dump code counted the number of dumpable VM map entries, allocated a buffer for the corresponding program headers, then iterated over the map a second time to populate them. A process sharing the address space via rfork(2) can mutate the map between the two passes, causing the second pass to write program headers past the end of the buffer. An unprivileged local user sharing an address space with a process that dumps core can trigger an out-of-bounds write on the kernel heap, potentially leading to privilege escalation.