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Fencer Intel
medium 4.9

CVE-2012-2121 json

The KVM implementation in the Linux kernel before 3.3.4 does not properly manage the relationships between memory slots and the iommu, whic…

published 2012-05-17 14 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2012-2123

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 3.3.4 does not properly manage the relationships between memory slots and the iommu, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (memory leak and host OS crash) by leveraging administrative access to the guest OS to conduct hotunplug and hotplug operations on devices.

Patch / fix

  • kernel RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
  • perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
  • python-perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
  • kernel-kdump RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
  • kernel-firmware RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
  • kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 RHEL 6 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2012:0743RHSA-2012:0676

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-2012-2121 updated cvss 4.4

kvm: device assignment page leak

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kvm
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) kernel 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, python-perf 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-220.23.1.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:0743
  • 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-264 Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls
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.