CVE-2012-4461

Severity: low (CVSS 1.9 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2013-01-22 · updated 2026-06-16

Description

The KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel before 3.6.9, when running on hosts that use qemu userspace without XSAVE, allows local users to cause a denial of service (kernel OOPS) by using the KVM_SET_SREGS ioctl to set the X86_CR4_OSXSAVE bit in the guest cr4 register, then calling the KVM_RUN ioctl.

Affected products

Linux kernel: through 3.6.8; 3.6, 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.3, 3.6.4, 3.6.5 (+2)

References

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/100742
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=6d1068b3a98519247d8ba4ec85cd40ac136dbdf9
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2013-06/msg00005.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0223.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0882.html
http://secunia.com/advisories/51160
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/ChangeLog-3.6.9
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/11/06/14
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/56414
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=862900
https://www.suse.com/support/update/announcement/2012/suse-su-20121679-1.html
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/100742

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