CVE-2016-4805: Use-after-free vulnerability in drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.2 allows local users to cause a denial of…

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

• canonical ubuntu linux12.04
• linux linux kernel4.5 and later · before 4.5.2
• linux linux kernel4.2 and later · before 4.4.8
• linux linux kernel3.19 and later · before 4.1.28
• linux linux kernel3.17 and later · before 3.18.37
• linux linux kernel3.15 and later · before 3.16.35
• linux linux kernel3.11 and later · before 3.12.59
• linux linux kernel3.13 and later · before 3.14.67

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

• CVE-2026-31431crypto: algif_aead - Revert to operating out-of-placeKEV
  90Now
• CVE-2022-0847A flaw was found in the way the "flags" member of the new pipe buffer structure was lacking proper initialization in copy_page_to_iter_pipe…KEV
  89Now
• CVE-2021-22555Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACEKEV
  85Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

• ← EarlierCVE-2016-4581May 23, 2016 · fs/pnode.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.4 does not properly traverse a mount propagation tree in a certain case involving a slave mount…
  22Monitor
• ← EarlierCVE-2016-4794May 23, 2016 · Use-after-free vulnerability in mm/percpu.c in the Linux kernel through 4.6 allows local users to cause a denial of service (BUG) or…
  31Monitor
• Later →CVE-2016-4913May 23, 2016 · The get_rock_ridge_filename function in fs/isofs/rock.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.5 mishandles NM (aka alternate name) entries…
  31Monitor

Root cause

After a memory region is freed, another reference pointing to it is still used. By then, the same region may have been allocated for different data.

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

1free(dev->buf);2/* ... another thread is still running ... */3process(dev->buf);

1lock(&dev->lock);2free(dev->buf);3dev->buf = NULL;4unlock(&dev->lock);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.