CVE-2006-5331: Linux Kernel

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

The altivec_unavailable_exception function in arch/powerpc/kernel/traps.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.19 on 64-bit systems mishandles the case where CONFIG_ALTIVEC is defined and the CPU actually supports Altivec, but the Altivec support was not detected by the kernel, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (panic) by triggering execution of an Altivec instruction.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: before 2.6.19 (fixed in 2.6.19)

Published 2017-10-29. Last modified 2026-06-16.