CVE-2010-3904
HIGHCVE-2010-3904 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-1284 vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-05-12) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2010-3904 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
The rds_page_copy_user function in net/rds/page.c in the Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) protocol implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36 does not properly validate addresses…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2023-05-12. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2023-06-02.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2010-3904.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2010-3904 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 0 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Description
The rds_page_copy_user function in net/rds/page.c in the Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) protocol implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36 does not properly validate addresses obtained from user space, which allows local users to gain privileges via crafted use of the sendmsg and recvmsg system calls.
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Linux Kernel 2.6.36-rc8 - 'RDS Protocol' Local Privilege Escalation
by Dan Rosenberg · Oct 19, 2010
Linux 2.6.30 < 2.6.36-rc8 - Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) Privilege Escalation (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · May 21, 2018
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for the affected component. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Remediation status
No patched version of the affected component has shipped for CVE-2010-3904 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2010-3904 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2010-3904. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
The Linux kernel as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4 and Red Hat Enterprise MRG did not include support for the RDS Protocol, and therefore are not affected by this issue. Updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6 are available to address this flaw.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2010-3904 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2010-3904 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.