What is CVE-2015-8970?

CVE-2015-8970 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2016-11-28.

How severe is CVE-2015-8970?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2015-8970 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

NULL pointer dereference in Linux Kernel

CVE-2015-8970

crypto/algif_skcipher.c in the Linux kernel before 4.4.2 does not verify that a setkey operation has been performed on an AF_ALG socket before an accept system call is processed, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) via a crafted application that does not supply a key, related to the lrw_crypt function in crypto/lrw.c.

Published 2016-11-28 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (42.3th percentile), scored 2026-10-02.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 42nd percentile — 42.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: +0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-476 — NULL Pointer Dereference

Public proof-of-concept exploits

Live-Hack-CVE/CVE-2015-8970

References

access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:2437 (vendor-advisory)
www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.4.2 (Release Notes)
git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/ (Patch, Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory)
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:2444 (vendor-advisory)
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:2077 (vendor-advisory)
access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:1842 (vendor-advisory)
github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/dd504589577d8e8e70f51f997ad487a4cb6c026f (Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/04/3 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Issue Tracking)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/94217 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2015-8970?: CVE-2015-8970 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2016-11-28.
How severe is CVE-2015-8970?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2015-8970 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.