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Fencer Intel
medium 6.8

CVE-2012-3406 json

The vfprintf function in stdio-common/vfprintf.c in GNU C Library (aka glibc) 2.5, 2.12, and probably other versions does not "properly res…

published 2014-02-10 12 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2012-3377

cvss
6.8
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.2%
EPSS 3.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 88%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The vfprintf function in stdio-common/vfprintf.c in GNU C Library (aka glibc) 2.5, 2.12, and probably other versions does not "properly restrict the use of" the alloca function when allocating the SPECS array, which allows context-dependent attackers to bypass the FORTIFY_SOURCE format-string protection mechanism and cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted format string using positional parameters and a large number of format specifiers, a different vulnerability than CVE-2012-3404 and CVE-2012-3405.

Patch / fix

  • glibc Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.19-14

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2012-3406

  • 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
  • glibc RHEL 5 2.5-81.el5_8.4
  • nscd RHEL 5 2.5-81.el5_8.4

red hat advisories RHSA-2012:1098RHSA-2012:1200RHSA-2012:1097

  • glibc openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.24-2.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10154-1

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-2012-3406 updated cvss 6.8

glibc: printf() unbound alloca() usage in case of positional parameters + many format specs

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) nscd 2.5-81.el5_8.4, glibc 2.5-81.el5_8.4, glibc-utils 2.5-81.el5_8.4, glibc-common 2.5-81.el5_8.4, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.5-81.el5_8.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) nscd 2.5-81.el5_8.4, glibc 2.5-81.el5_8.4, glibc-utils 2.5-81.el5_8.4, glibc-common 2.5-81.el5_8.4, glibc-debuginfo-common 2.5-81.el5_8.4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1097
  • 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 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

3.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 88% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-264 Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

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.