SpaceX engineer finds 19 year Linux CIFS bug enabling root

The article discusses a critical Linux vulnerability called CIFSwitch, discovered by Asim Manizada, a SpaceX security engineer. This 19-year-old logic bug allows unauthorized users to forge CIFS authentication keys, potentially granting root access on various Linux distributions, including Mint, CentOS, and Kali. The vulnerability was identified through an innovative AI-powered framework that analyzes kernel objects and their relationships.

A kernel-side patch has been created to address the issue, but many systems remain vulnerable until updates are applied. Users are advised to remove cifs-utils or configure kernel modules if they do not use CIFS or Kerberos authentication.