CVE-2006-5331

MEDIUMNVD 5.55.5—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 5.5 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2022-05-01. NVD baseline CVSS 5.5; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
5.5EG
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.4%CVSS: 5.5Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

An upstream fix is merged but not yet released — mitigate (WAF / firewall / segmentation) until the release ships, then apply it.

The altivec_unavailable_exception function in arch/powerpc/kernel/traps.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.19 on 64-bit systems mishandles the case where CONFIG_ALTIVEC is defined and the CPU actually supports Altivec, but the Altivec support was not detected by the kernel, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (panic) by triggering execution of an Altivec instruction.

CVSS v3
5.5
EG Score
5.5MEDIUMmedium confidence
EG Risk
29
EG Risk 29/100CISA SSVC

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity55% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
CISA SSVC: Track at low or medium mission impact; Track or Attend at high (mission-essential systems).
Action: An upstream fix is merged but not yet in a tagged release. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high until it ships, then apply the release.
EPSS PROB
0.4%
EPSS %ILE
35th
KEV
Not listed

CISA SSVCTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track or Attend at high (mission-essential systems).

An upstream fix is merged but not yet in a tagged release. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high until it ships, then apply the release.

Exploitation none (no KEV listing, exploit record or EPSS ≥ 50%) · Automatable unknown (not published for this CVE) · Technical impact partial (CVSS below 9.0). Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it: high means the affected system is essential to your organisation's mission, or its compromise could cause irreversible harm to people. CISA's decision table

Published

October 29, 2017

Last Modified

June 16, 2026

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Sep 29, 2026
Upstream fix merged — awaiting tagged release. Sources: github_commit.
github_commit

commit 6c4841c2b6c3 (torvalds/linux)

Fix landed in torvalds/linux commit 6c4841c2b6c3 — awaiting tagged release

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/6c4841c2b6c32a134f9f36e5e08857138cc12b10
generic

Making sure you're not a bot!

https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=213229
generic

[POWERPC] Never panic when taking altivec exceptions from userspace - kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6c4841c2b6c32a134f9f36e5e08857138cc12b10

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 6× in last 7d / 13× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 117 total refreshes for this CVE.

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Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2006-5331?
CVE-2006-5331 is a medium vulnerability published on October 29, 2017. The altivecunavailableexception function in arch/powerpc/kernel/traps.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.19 on 64-bit systems mishandles the case where CONFIG_ALTIVEC is defined and the CPU actually supports Altivec, but the Altivec support was not detected by the kernel, which allows local users to…
When was CVE-2006-5331 disclosed?
CVE-2006-5331 was first published on October 29, 2017, with the most recent update on June 16, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2006-5331 actively exploited?
CVE-2006-5331 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (35th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2006-5331?
CVE-2006-5331 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.5 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2006-5331?
An upstream fix for CVE-2006-5331 has been merged but is not yet in a tagged release. Until it ships, restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation, then update to the release that contains the fix.

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