CVE-2016-5195
HIGHCVE-2016-5195 is a high-severity (CVSS 7) vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-03) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2016-5195 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
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.
Description
Race condition in mm/gup.c in the Linux kernel 2.x through 4.x before 4.8.3 allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging incorrect handling of a copy-on-write (COW) feature to write to a read-only memory mapping, as exploited in the wild in October 2016, aka "Dirty COW."
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 2.6.22 < 3.9 - 'Dirty COW PTRACE_POKEDATA' Race Condition (Write Access Method)
by Phil Oester · Oct 26, 2016
Linux Kernel 2.6.22 < 3.9 - 'Dirty COW /proc/self/mem' Race Condition Privilege Escalation (/etc/passwd Method)
by Gabriele Bonacini · Nov 27, 2016
Linux Kernel 2.6.22 < 3.9 - 'Dirty COW' /proc/self/mem Race Condition (Write Access Method)
by Phil Oester · Oct 19, 2016
Linux Kernel 2.6.22 < 3.9 (x86/x64) - 'Dirty COW /proc/self/mem' Race Condition Privilege Escalation (SUID Method)
by Robin Verton · Oct 21, 2016
Linux Kernel 2.6.22 < 3.9 - 'Dirty COW' 'PTRACE_POKEDATA' Race Condition Privilege Escalation (/etc/passwd Method)
by FireFart · Nov 28, 2016
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-2016-5195 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-2016-5195 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-2016-5195. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2016-5195 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2016-5195 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.