CVE-2012-0217
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.
Predictions
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 withsource_tier=community-verified.
Exploits
Public proof-of-concept code below. AS-IS, for defenders and authorised testing only.
Exploit-DB
Microsoft Windows Kernel - Intel x64 SYSRET (MS12-042)
FreeBSD 9.0 - Intel SYSRET Kernel Privilege Escalation
FreeBSD - Intel SYSRET Privilege Escalation (Metasploit)
Metasploit modules
OS impact
FreeBSD Affected 1 release
| Version | Status | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| — | Affected | — |
Windows Affected 2 releases
| Version | Status | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| r2 | Affected | — |
| — | Affected | — |
Debian Fixed 5 releases
| Version | Status | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| trixie | Fixed | 4.1.3~rc1+hg-20120614.a9c0a89c08f2-1 |
| sid | Fixed | 4.1.3~rc1+hg-20120614.a9c0a89c08f2-1 |
| forky | Fixed | 4.1.3~rc1+hg-20120614.a9c0a89c08f2-1 |
| bullseye | Fixed | 4.1.3~rc1+hg-20120614.a9c0a89c08f2-1 |
| bookworm | Fixed | 4.1.3~rc1+hg-20120614.a9c0a89c08f2-1 |
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
- 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
- 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
- https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-0217
CWEs
CWE-119
Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.
Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.