The Performance Events subsystem in the Linux kernel before 3.1 does not properly handle event overflows associated with PERF_COUNT_SW_CPU_…

published 2012-05-24 14 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2011-2891

cvss: 5.5; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.9%; EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 60%
public exploits: 1; Exploit-DB

The Performance Events subsystem in the Linux kernel before 3.1 does not properly handle event overflows associated with PERF_COUNT_SW_CPU_CLOCK events, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system hang) via a crafted application.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 1 links 4

linux linux_kernel 3.1

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 RHSA-2012:0333

github.com/torvalds/linux@a8b0ca1 commit
kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/ChangeLog-3.1 advisory
openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/08/16/1 advisory
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=730706 advisory

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-2011-2918 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 4.9

kernel: perf: Fix software event overflow

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 MRG Realtime for RHEL 6 Server v.2 kernel-rt 3.0.18-rt34.53.el6rt, kernel-rt-trace 3.0.18-rt34.53.el6rt, kernel-rt-vanilla 3.0.18-rt34.53.el6rt, kernel-rt-firmware 3.0.18-rt34.53.el6rt, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.0.18-rt34.53.el6rt
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:0333
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel
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

Timeline

2011-09-01 First public exploit (EDB-17769)
2012-05-24 Published

Exploit prediction

0.92% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 60% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

EDB-17769 Linux Kernel 3.0.0 - 'perf_count_sw_cpu_clock' event Denial of Service dos, 2011-09-01

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD	2.0	4.9	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness

CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

github.com /torvalds/linux/commit/a8b0ca17b80e92faab46ee7179ba9e99ccb61233
patch, third-party-advisory
kernel.org /pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/ChangeLog-3.1
mailing-list, patch, vendor-advisory
openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2011/08/16/1
mailing-list, patch, third-party-advisory
bugzilla.redhat.com /show_bug.cgi?id=730706
issue-tracking, patch, third-party-advisory
git.kernel.org /?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=a8b0ca17b80e92faab46ee7179ba9e99ccb61233

Sources

CVE List CVE-2011-2918
NVD CVE-2011-2918

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.

Summary