A flaw in the Linux kernel allows a 20-line C program to crash most distributions using the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels running on x86 and x86-64 architectures, according to security researchers. The problem means that anyone with an ordinary user account on a Linux machine can crash the entire server, according to Oyvind Saether, who discovered the bug along with Stian Skjelstad. Administrator access isn't required. . . .
A flaw in the Linux kernel allows a 20-line C program to crash most distributions using the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels running on x86 and x86-64 architectures, according to security researchers. The problem means that anyone with an ordinary user account on a Linux machine can crash the entire server, according to Oyvind Saether, who discovered the bug along with Stian Skjelstad. Administrator access isn't required.

"Using this exploit to crash Linux systems requires the (ab)user to have shell access or other means of uploading and running the program (like cgi-bin and FTP access)," Saether wrote in an advisory on Friday. "This exploit has been reportedly used to take down several lame free-shell providers' servers."

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