CVE-2012-0217
The x86-64 kernel system-call functionality in Xen 4.1.2 and earlier, as used in Citrix XenServer 6.0.2 and earlier and other products; Oracle Solaris 11 and earlier; illumos before r13724; Joyent SmartOS before 20120614T184600Z; FreeBSD before…
Does this matter?
EPSS puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 39.6%, higher than 99% of all known CVEs. Patch or mitigate before the next change window.
Description
The x86-64 kernel system-call functionality in Xen 4.1.2 and earlier, as used in Citrix XenServer 6.0.2 and earlier and other products; Oracle Solaris 11 and earlier; illumos before r13724; Joyent SmartOS before 20120614T184600Z; FreeBSD before 9.0-RELEASE-p3; NetBSD 6.0 Beta and earlier; Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and R2 SP1 and Windows 7 Gold and SP1; and possibly other operating systems, when running on an Intel processor, incorrectly uses the sysret path in cases where a certain address is not a canonical address, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application. NOTE: because this issue is due to incorrect use of the Intel specification, it should have been split into separate identifiers; however, there was some value in preserving the original mapping of the multi-codebase coordinated-disclosure effort to a single identifier.
- CVSS 2.0
- 7.2 HIGHAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
- EPSS
- 39.57% probability · 99th percentile
- Public exploits
- 3 in Exploit-DB · verified · first 27 August 2012
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-119
- Affected
- freebsd/freebsd · illumos/illumos · joyent/smartos · xen/xen · microsoft/windows 7 · microsoft/windows server 2003 · microsoft/windows server 2008 · microsoft/windows xp · citrix/xenserver · netbsd/netbsd · sun/sunos
- Source
- security@debian.org
EPSS 39.6% since 4 November 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
Public exploits (3)
Entries in Exploit-DB that cite this CVE. Links go to the Exploit-DB page and to the file in the public repository; nothing is hosted here. A verified tick means the Exploit-DB team confirmed the exploit works against the stated version.
| EDB-ID | Title | Type | Published | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EDB-46508source ↗ | FreeBSD - Intel SYSRET Privilege Escalation (Metasploit)freebsd_x86-64 · Metasploit | local | 7 March 2019 | yes |
| EDB-28718source ↗ | FreeBSD 9.0 - Intel SYSRET Kernel Privilege Escalationfreebsd · CurcolHekerLink | local | 4 October 2013 | yes |
| EDB-20861source ↗ | Microsoft Windows Kernel - Intel x64 SYSRET (MS12-042)windows_x86-64 · Shahriyar Jalayeri | local | 27 August 2012 | yes |
References
- http://blog.illumos.org/2012/06/14/illumos-vulnerability-patched/
- http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2012/06/13/the-intel-sysret-privilege-escalation/
- http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/security/advisories/NetBSD-SA2012-003.txt.asc
- http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-announce/2012-06/msg00001.html
- http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2012-06/msg01072.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/55082
- http://security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-12:04.sysret.asc
- http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201309-24.xml
- http://smartos.org/2012/06/15/smartos-news-3/
- http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133161
- http://wiki.smartos.org/display/DOC/SmartOS+Change+Log#SmartOSChangeLog-June14%2C2012
- http://www.debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2501
- http://www.debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2508
- http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/649219US Government Resource
- http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2013:150
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/cpuoct2012-1515893.html
- http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA12-164A.htmlUS Government Resource
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=813428
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2012/ms12-042
- https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A15596
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/28718/
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/46508/
- https://www.illumos.org/issues/2873
- http://blog.illumos.org/2012/06/14/illumos-vulnerability-patched/
- http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2012/06/13/the-intel-sysret-privilege-escalation/
- http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/security/advisories/NetBSD-SA2012-003.txt.asc
- http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-announce/2012-06/msg00001.html
- http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2012-06/msg01072.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/55082
- http://security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-12:04.sysret.asc
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.