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Fencer Intel
medium 4.9

CVE-2011-2521 json

The x86_assign_hw_event function in arch/x86/kernel/cpu/perf_event.c in the Performance Events subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39…

published 2012-05-24 14 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2011-2506

cvss
4.9
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 33%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The x86_assign_hw_event function in arch/x86/kernel/cpu/perf_event.c in the Performance Events subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39 does not properly calculate counter values, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (panic) via the perf program.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 2.6.39
  • kernel RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6
  • perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6
  • kernel-kdump RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6
  • kernel-firmware RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x RHEL 6 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2011:1350

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2011-2521 updated cvss 4.9

kernel: perf, x86: fix Intel fixed counters base initialization

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-131.17.1.el6, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:1350
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 33% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 4.9 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.