CVE-2012-0045

medium

Published 2012-07-03 · Modified 2026-04-29

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CVSS v3

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CVSS v4 NEW

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not yet in upstream

VIR risk

5.7

Description

The em_syscall function in arch/x86/kvm/emulate.c in the KVM implementation in the Linux kernel before 3.2.14 does not properly handle the 0f05 (aka syscall) opcode, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (guest OS crash) via a crafted application, as demonstrated by an NASM file.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood

20%

Patch ETA

—

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

No mitigations published for this CVE yet.

The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.

✚ Propose a mitigation on Community → Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here with source_tier=community-verified.

Exploits

Public proof-of-concept code below. AS-IS, for defenders and authorised testing only.

Exploit-DB

EDB-36545 dos linux verified text · 1 KB

Stephan Sattler · 2011-12-29

Linux Kernel 3.1.8 - KVM Local Denial of Service

text exploit Source: Exploit-DB

source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/51389/info

The Linux kernel is prone to a local denial-of-service vulnerability.

Attackers can exploit this issue to cause the kernel to crash, denying service to legitimate users.

NOTE: This issue affects Linux kernels running as guest images. 

[bits 32]
global _start
SECTION .text
_start: syscall

OS impact

Linux kernel Affected 60 releases

Version	Status	Fixed in
3.2.12	Affected	—
3.2.11	Affected	—
3.2.10	Affected	—
3.2.9	Affected	—
3.2.8	Affected	—
3.2.7	Affected	—
3.2.6	Affected	—
3.2.5	Affected	—
3.2.4	Affected	—
3.2.3	Affected	—
3.2.2	Affected	—
3.2.1	Affected	—
3.2	Affected	—
3.1.10	Affected	—
3.1.9	Affected	—
3.1.8	Affected	—
3.1.7	Affected	—
3.1.6	Affected	—
3.1.5	Affected	—
3.1.4	Affected	—
3.1.3	Affected	—
3.1.2	Affected	—
3.1.1	Affected	—
3.1	Affected	—
3.0.34	Affected	—
3.0.33	Affected	—
3.0.32	Affected	—
3.0.31	Affected	—
3.0.30	Affected	—
3.0.29	Affected	—
3.0.28	Affected	—
3.0.27	Affected	—
3.0.26	Affected	—
3.0.25	Affected	—
3.0.24	Affected	—
3.0.23	Affected	—
3.0.22	Affected	—
3.0.21	Affected	—
3.0.20	Affected	—
3.0.19	Affected	—
3.0.18	Affected	—
3.0.17	Affected	—
3.0.16	Affected	—
3.0.15	Affected	—
3.0.14	Affected	—
3.0.13	Affected	—
3.0.12	Affected	—
3.0.11	Affected	—
3.0.10	Affected	—
3.0.9	Affected	—
3.0.8	Affected	—
3.0.7	Affected	—
3.0.6	Affected	—
3.0.5	Affected	—
3.0.4	Affected	—
3.0.3	Affected	—
3.0.2	Affected	—
3.0.1	Affected	—
3.0	Affected	—
—	Affected	—

References

Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.