Denial of Service Vulnerability in GNU C Library Affecting Various Linux Distributions

CVE-2014-8121

Summary

The Name Service Switch (NSS) functionality in the GNU C Library, specifically in the nss_files component, fails to enforce proper checks on file states. This design flaw can be exploited by remote attackers, allowing them to induce a denial of service by causing an infinite loop during database lookup operations. By manipulating file pointers while iterating through database entries, attackers can disrupt service availability, leading to potential outages or performance degradation.

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