kernel-exploit-dirtycow-project-subm

Dirty COW Privilege Escalation (CVE-2016-5195) This project demonstrates a privilege escalation scenario in a controlled lab environment using the Dirty COW vulnerability on an Ubuntu 16.04 kernel affected by CVE-2016-5195.

Environment

• Attacker VM: Kali Linux
• Victim VM: Ubuntu 16.04 (vulnerable kernel)
• Goal: escalate privileges from a limited user to root and capture the flag from /root/flag.txt

High-level steps (no exploit code included)

1. Verified the victim kernel version was vulnerable.
2. Prepared compilation environment (Ubuntu 16.04 container) to match victim libraries.
3. Built the exploit binary inside the container.
4. Transferred the compiled binary from attacker to victim.
5. Ran the binary on the victim and obtained root access.
6. Read the flag from /root/flag.txt to confirm success.

Proof

Exploit result output

Exploit Output

Flag capture

Flag Proof