Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This is a Linux kernel race-condition flaw from an incomplete prior fix. A local user could potentially read sensitive information, disrupt the system, or cause other unspecified impact. It is serious, but the source bundle indicates local access and high attack complexity, not remote unauthenticated compromise.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority kernel maintenance issue, especially for shared infrastructure. It is not evidenced as actively exploited in the provided bundle, but successful exploitation could affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability on vulnerable hosts.
Technical view
CVE-2019-14898 affects Linux kernel versions before 5.0.10 and relates to races around mmget_not_zero or get_task_mm calls. The CVSS 3.0 score is 7.0 with local attack vector, low privileges, high complexity, and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on systems running Linux kernels before 5.0.10, including vendor-maintained kernels or appliances that incorporated affected code. Confirm through operating system and vendor advisories because many enterprise kernels use backported fixes rather than upstream version numbers.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. Exploitation requires a local, low-privileged user and a successful race condition, which raises difficulty but still matters on multi-user, shared, container, or hosting environments.
Researcher notes
The key uncertainty is vendor-specific fix status. The CVE ties the issue to an incomplete CVE-2019-11599 fix and stable kernel changelogs. Validate exact patches through distro or product advisories before concluding a host is exposed or fixed.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade to a vendor-supported kernel containing the complete fix.
- Check vendor advisories from Oracle, NetApp, Red Hat, and your Linux distributor.
- Prioritize shared systems where untrusted local users can run code.
- Reduce unnecessary local shell access until remediation is confirmed.
- Track kernel backports; do not rely only on upstream version numbers.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Linux systems and record running kernel versions.
- Compare each system against vendor fixed-release guidance for CVE-2019-14898.
- Review appliance and cloud image advisories for embedded Linux exposure.
- Confirm remediation through package changelogs or vendor security metadata.
- Document exceptions where vendor status is unavailable or unsupported.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-362: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCWE-667: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2019-14898 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H15.9Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
7HighVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.htmlCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.14.114CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.19.37CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.0.10CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1790CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200608-0001/CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-14898CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')
Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Improper Locking
Improper Locking represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.