CVE-2004-1070: Linux Kernel

High severity, CVSS 7.2. EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

The load_elf_binary function in the binfmt_elf loader (binfmt_elf.c) in Linux kernel 2.4.x up to 2.4.27, and 2.6.x up to 2.6.8, does not properly check return values from calls to the kernel_read function, which may allow local users to modify sensitive memory in a setuid program and execute arbitrary code.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: version 2.4.0 only; version 2.4.1 only; version 2.4.2 only; version 2.4.3 only; version 2.4.4 only; version 2.4.5 only; …
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux: version 2.1 only; version 3.0 only
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop: version 3.0 only
• Red Hat Fedora Core: version core_2.0 only; version core_3.0 only
• Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation: version 2.1 only
• Suse Suse Linux: version 1.0 only; version 8 only; version 8.1 only; version 8.2 only; version 9.0 only; version 9.1 only; …
• Trustix Secure Linux: version 1.5 only; version 2.0 only; version 2.1 only; version 2.2 only
• Turbolinux Turbolinux Server: version 10.0 only

Published 2005-01-10. Last modified 2026-06-16.