Executive Summary

This vulnerability is in the Linux kernel's audit system, specifically in how it records capability sets in CAPSET audit records.

Due to a copy-paste error, the function __audit_log_capset() incorrectly records the effective capability set into the inheritable capability field.

As a result, every CAPSET audit record reports the process inheritable capabilities with the value of the effective capabilities instead of the actual inheritable capabilities.

This causes silent corruption of audit data that is used for compliance and forensic analysis.

An attacker who modifies inheritable capabilities to prepare for a privilege-escalating exec would have those changes masked in the audit trail, making detection difficult.

This bug has existed since CAPSET audit records were introduced in 2008.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can impact you by corrupting audit data related to process capabilities.

Because the audit records incorrectly log inheritable capabilities, any malicious changes made by an attacker to escalate privileges may not be visible in audit logs.

This makes it harder to detect and investigate privilege escalation attempts, potentially allowing attackers to operate undetected.

Overall, it weakens the reliability of audit trails used for security monitoring and forensic analysis.

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Compliance Impact

This vulnerability affects compliance by silently corrupting audit data that is critical for demonstrating security controls.

Standards and regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA require accurate and reliable audit logs to detect and respond to security incidents.

Because the audit records mask changes to inheritable capabilities, organizations may fail to detect unauthorized privilege escalations.

This undermines the integrity of audit trails and could lead to non-compliance with regulatory requirements for security monitoring and incident response.

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