The fact is, that I know of many other potential security flaws in my system. I didn't even bother installing a firewall. One more minor flaw isn't worth protecting when there's many more flaws. I don't think that there's too much on my system worth hacking into. Maybe I have minor security (like MD5 passwords), but that's about it. When I'm setting up a system used as a server, or with important data, then I'll worry about security.

Quote: Original post by Null and Void
But it's basically 'just' a DoS exploit, not much potential for privelege escalation. Still, if one has the ability to easily patch their kernel or update it, why not?

This is correct, I was mistaken when I stated that this flaw allowed for gaining root access.

But, let's make this real clear: The flaw lets an attacker crash your machine, IFF he already has some sort of local access.

If I were an attacker, I'd rather trash the machine with the local access than take it down with a kernel exploit.

So like I said, I'm not worried. and my box is still unpatched :)