The PV domain builder in Xen 4.2 and earlier does not validate the size of the kernel or ramdisk (1) before or (2) after decompression, which allows local guest administrators to cause a denial of service (domain 0 memory consumption) via a crafted (a) kernel or (b) ramdisk.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2012-4544 is rated Low Risk (20.5/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.42%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
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 | 2026-06-15 | 0.06% | 0.42% | +0.36% |
| 2 | 2023-03-07 | 1.55% | 0.06% | -1.48% |
| 3 | 2022-02-04 | — | 1.55% | — |
Full EPSS history (3 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | 2.0 | LOW |
|
3.9 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
low | CVE-2012-4544 low 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-2012-4544 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-4544 |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2012-4544 medium priority: Ubuntu including 4 source packages (xen, xen-3.1, xen-3.2, xen-3.3), 32 status rows across 8 suites (hardy, lucid, oneiric, precise, quantal, raring, saucy, upstream): DNE 20, released 5, needed 4, ignored 3. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-4544 |