The x86-64 kernel system-call functionality in Xen 4.1.2 and earlier, as used in Citrix XenServer 6.0.2 and earlier and other products; Oracle Solaris 11 and earlier; illumos before r13724; Joyent SmartOS before 20120614T184600Z; FreeBSD before 9.0-RELEASE-p3; NetBSD 6.0 Beta and earlier; Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and R2 SP1 and Windows 7 Gold and SP1; and possibly other operating systems, when running on an Intel processor, incorrectly uses the sysret path in cases where a certain address is not a canonical address, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application. NOTE: because this issue is due to incorrect use of the Intel specification, it should have been split into separate identifiers; however, there was some value in preserving the original mapping of the multi-codebase coordinated-disclosure effort to a single identifier.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2012-0217 is rated High Exploit Risk (77.9/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 88.00%, 99th percentile). Core evidence: 3 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46508 | exploit_db | edb | 2019-03-07 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
| 28718 | exploit_db | edb | 2013-10-04 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
| 20861 | exploit_db | edb | 2012-08-27 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2025-12-28 | 88.72% | 88.00% | -0.72% |
| 2 | 2025-12-27 | 88.00% | 88.72% | +0.72% |
| 3 | 2025-12-14 | — | 88.00% | — |
Full EPSS history (15 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.2 | 2.0 | HIGH |
|
3.9 | 10.0 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2012-0217 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (xen), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-0217 |
gentoo
|
high | CVE-2012-0217: 1 GLSA(s) (201309-24), 3 atom(s) (app-emulation/xen, app-emulation/xen-pvgrub, app-emulation/xen-tools); latest impact high. | https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2012-0217 |
redhat
|
high | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-0217 |
ubuntu
|
high | CVE-2012-0217 high priority: Ubuntu including 4 source packages (xen, xen-3.1, xen-3.2, xen-3.3), 36 status rows across 9 suites (hardy, lucid, natty, oneiric, precise, quantal, raring, saucy, upstream): DNE 23, released 4, ignored 3, needs-triage 3, not-affected 3. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-0217 |
: Per: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms12-042 'This vulnerability only affects Intel x64-based versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Systems with AMD or ARM-based CPUs are not affected by this vulnerability.'
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| freebsd | freebsd | <= 9.0 | cpe:2.3:o:freebsd:freebsd:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| illumos | illumos | <= r13723 | cpe:2.3:o:illumos:illumos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| joyent | smartos | <= 20120614 | cpe:2.3:o:joyent:smartos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| xen | xen | <= 4.1.2 | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| xen | xen | 4.0.0 | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| xen | xen | 4.0.1 | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.0.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| xen | xen | 4.0.2 | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.0.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| xen | xen | 4.0.3 | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.0.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| xen | xen | 4.0.4 | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.0.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| xen | xen | 4.1.0 | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| xen | xen | 4.1.1 | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.1.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_7 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_7:*:*:x64:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_7 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_7:*:sp1:x64:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_2003 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2003:*:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_2008 | r2 | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2008:r2:*:x64:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_xp | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_xp:*:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| citrix | xenserver | <= 6.0.2 | cpe:2.3:a:citrix:xenserver:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| citrix | xenserver | 6.0 | cpe:2.3:a:citrix:xenserver:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| netbsd | netbsd | <= 6.0 | cpe:2.3:o:netbsd:netbsd:*:beta:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| sun | sunos | <= 5.11 | cpe:2.3:o:sun:sunos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |