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Fencer Intel
medium 5.0

CVE-2012-3404 json

The vfprintf function in stdio-common/vfprintf.c in libc in GNU C Library (aka glibc) 2.12 and other versions does not properly calculate a…

published 2014-02-10 12 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2012-3375

cvss
5.0
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.2%
EPSS 2.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 82%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The vfprintf function in stdio-common/vfprintf.c in libc in GNU C Library (aka glibc) 2.12 and other versions does not properly calculate a buffer length, which allows context-dependent attackers to bypass the FORTIFY_SOURCE format-string protection mechanism and cause a denial of service (stack corruption and crash) via a format string that uses positional parameters and many format specifiers.

Patch / fix

  • glibc Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.13-35

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2012-3404

  • glibc RHEL 6 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3
  • nscd RHEL 6 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3
  • glibc-utils RHEL 6 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3
  • glibc-common RHEL 6 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3
  • glibc-debuginfo-common RHEL 6 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3
  • rhev-hypervisor6 RHEL 6 6.3-20120815.0.el6_3

red hat advisories RHSA-2012:1098RHSA-2012:1200

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-2012-3404 updated cvss 6.8

glibc: incorrect size calculation in formatted printing can lead to FORTIFY_SOURCE format string protection bypass

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) nscd 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-utils 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) glibc 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) nscd 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-utils 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) glibc 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) nscd 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-utils 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) glibc 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) nscd 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-utils 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) glibc 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.12-1.80.el6_3.3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1098
  • Red Hat RHEV Hypervisor for RHEL-6 rhev-hypervisor6 6.3-20120815.0.el6_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1200
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 glibc
    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

2.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 82% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • sourceware.org https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=12445 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness

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.