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 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.
Key facts
- CVSS score
- 7.2 (v2.0)
- Severity
- HIGH
- CVSS vector
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C- Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-119
- EPSS score
- 39.6% (99th percentile)
- In CISA KEV
- No
- In EU EUVD
- Yes (EUVD-2012-0253)
- Published
- June 12, 2012
- NVD last modified
- June 16, 2026
- Status
- Modified
EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD)
This vulnerability is also tracked by ENISA as EUVD-2012-0253 in the EU Vulnerability Database. Last updated in EUVD on August 6, 2024.
View on the EU Vulnerability DatabaseAffected products
- citrix / xenserver
- citrix / xenserver
- freebsd / freebsd
- illumos / illumos
- joyent / smartos
- microsoft / windows 7
- microsoft / windows 7
- microsoft / windows server 2003
- microsoft / windows server 2008
- microsoft / windows xp
- netbsd / netbsd
- sun / sunos
- xen / xen
- xen / xen
- xen / xen
- xen / xen
- xen / xen
- xen / xen
- xen / xen
- xen / xen
Certified products that may be affected
4 FIPS 140 or Common Criteria certified products, from automated matching by sec-certs.org.
- Windows XP Enhanced Cryptographic Provider (RSAENH) - Microsoft Corporation - FIPS 140 989 - historical
- Windows XP Enhanced DSS and Diffie-Hellman Cryptographic Provider (DSSENH) - Microsoft Corporation - FIPS 140 990 - historical
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 including R2, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, x64, and Itanium Editions; Windows XP Professional SP2 and x64 SP2; Windows XP Embedded SP2 - Microsoft Corporation - Common Criteria CCEVS-VR-VID-10184-2008 - archived
- Microsoft Windows 2003 and Microsoft Windows XP - Microsoft Corporation - Common Criteria CCEVS-VR-0131-2005 - archived
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/649219(US 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.html(US 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
Last updated September 17, 2026 · Source: NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org EPSS
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