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Fencer Intel
medium 4.9

CVE-2012-1601 json

The KVM implementation in the Linux kernel before 3.3.6 allows host OS users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and hos…

published 2012-05-17 14 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2012-1615

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 35%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The KVM implementation in the Linux kernel before 3.3.6 allows host OS users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and host OS crash) by making a KVM_CREATE_IRQCHIP ioctl call after a virtual CPU already exists.

Patch / fix

  • kvm RHEL 5 VIRTUALIZATION 83-249.el5_8.4
  • kmod-kvm RHEL 5 VIRTUALIZATION 83-249.el5_8.4
  • kvm-tools RHEL 5 VIRTUALIZATION 83-249.el5_8.4
  • kvm-qemu-img RHEL 5 VIRTUALIZATION 83-249.el5_8.4
  • kernel RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6
  • perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6
  • python-perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6
  • kernel-kdump RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2012:0676RHSA-2012:0571

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-2012-1601 updated cvss 4.0

kernel: kvm: irqchip_in_kernel() and vcpu->arch.apic inconsistency

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kvm
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:0571
  • Red Hat RHEL Desktop Multi OS (v. 5 client) kvm 83-249.el5_8.4, kmod-kvm 83-249.el5_8.4, kvm-tools 83-249.el5_8.4, kvm-qemu-img 83-249.el5_8.4 Red Hat RHEL Virtualization (v. 5 server) kvm 83-249.el5_8.4, kmod-kvm 83-249.el5_8.4, kvm-tools 83-249.el5_8.4, kvm-qemu-img 83-249.el5_8.4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:0676
  • 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

0.41% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 35% 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
  • CWE-399 Resource Management Errors
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.