Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2012-0217?

Affected: Xenserver (Citrix) versions 6.0; Freebsd; Illumos, among others. The full list is in the CVE brief.

Is CVE-2012-0217 being exploited in the wild?

It is not listed in any known-exploited vulnerabilities catalog.

Is CVE-2012-0217 in the CISA KEV catalog?

No, it is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Is there a public exploit for CVE-2012-0217?

Public exploit code is available.

Is there a fix for CVE-2012-0217?

Fixed versions are available, including Xenserver 6.0.2, Freebsd 9.0, Illumos r13723.

How urgently should CVE-2012-0217 be patched?

Brandefense priority: patch immediately, because public exploit code exists for a high-severity flaw.

Request A Demo

Emerging threatsHigh

CVE-2012-0217Xenserver Memory Corruption

Published Jun 12, 2012 · Updated Aug 4, 2026 · Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2012-0217, DSA-2501-1, DSA-2508-1

Key Facts

Patch immediately

CVE-2012-0217 is a high-severity vulnerability (CVSS 7.2 v2) affecting Xenserver (Citrix), Freebsd, Illumos and 22 more products.
It is not listed in any known-exploited vulnerabilities catalog. Public exploit code is available.
EPSS estimates a 40% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
Fixed versions are available, including Xenserver 6.0.2, Freebsd 9.0, Illumos r13723.
Brandefense priority: patch immediately, because public exploit code exists for a high-severity flaw.

Scores

CVSS v2

7.2

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

EPSS (30-day exploit likelihood)

40%

Higher than 98.6% of all scored CVEs

Exploit maturity

Weaponized

ATLAS score

59/100

Publication score, see How it works

Exploitation Verdict

KEV listed

Not listed

Federal due date

None

No federal due date

Ransomware use

Not reported

Attributed actors

None named

Exploit & Defence Guidance

Exploit maturity

Weaponized

Public exploit code

Proof-of-concept links

In-the-wild evidence

Reports of active use

Advisories And Exploit References

advisoryhttps://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-0217
advisoryRHSA-2012:0720
advisoryRHSA-2012:0721

Description

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.

Affected Products

66 affected entries in total

Product	Affected versions	Fixed in
XenserverCitrix	6.0	6.0.2
FreebsdFreebsd	See advisory	9.0
IllumosIllumos	See advisory	r13723
SmartosJoyent	See advisory	20120614
Windows 7Microsoft	See advisory	n/a

20 more affected products in the full CVE brief

Patched Releases

Xenserver

6.0.2

Freebsd

9.0

Illumos

r13723

Smartos

20120614

kernel

0:2.6.18-238.39.1.el5, 2.6.18-308.8.2.0.1.el5, 2.6.18-308.8.2.el5

kernel-debug