[mattrepl]

Just to clarify, this is _not_ a remote vulnerability. If it was a means to create a remote shell, then it would be. An attacker would need to first find some way to gain remote access and then could use this bug to gain root privilege.

[kpcyrd]

The parent comment and some of the child comments are implying you need to be physically near the system, which doesn't seem to be true.

You still need to find a way to execute code on the target system (also called "getting a shell"), but this can be done over the wire, too.