Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2012-3405

The vfprintf function in stdio-common/vfprintf.c in libc in GNU C Library (aka glibc) 2.14 and other versions does not properly calculate a buffer length, which allows context-dependent attackers to bypass the FORTIFY_SOURCE format-string protection mechanism and cause a denial of service (segmentation fault and crash) via a format string with a large number of format specifiers that triggers "desynchronization within the buffer size handling," a different vulnerability than CVE-2012-3404.

Security Impact Summary

CVE-2012-3405 is a security vulnerability that . Impacting 4 products from gnu, from redhat, from canonical and 1 other, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Documented in 2014, this vulnerability occurred amid the cloud computing expansion era, where traditional network perimeter security models were being reevaluated. Organizations were transitioning from isolated infrastructure to interconnected systems, creating new attack surfaces that vulnerabilities like this could exploit.

Published

2014-02-10T18:15:10.073

Last Modified

2025-04-11T00:51:21.963

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv2: 5.0 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

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

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: NONE
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-189

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	gnu	glibc	2.14	Yes
Application	redhat	enterprise_virtualization	3.0	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	8.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	10.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	11.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	11.10	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	12.04	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	6.0	Yes

References

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1098.html ([email protected])
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1200.html ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/07/11/17 ([email protected])
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1589-1 ([email protected])
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=833704 ([email protected])
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201503-04 ([email protected])
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=13446 ([email protected])
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1098.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1200.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/07/11/17 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1589-1 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=833704 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201503-04 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=13446 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For gnu's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.