A Linux kernel bug has been sitting there, Heartbleed style, awaiting discovery and exploitation for several years. The vulnerability allows a buffer overflow in the Linux pty driver, short for pseudo teletype The bug is whats called a race condition, where two processes compete to get access to a resource, but end up clashing over it. An attacker who can run code of his choice in the kernel can easily promote himself to the all-powerful Linux user called root.”]