# CVE-2012-1101: Denial of service in systemd

> Attackers can cause a denial of service by triggering a failure in the login procedure when handling non-existent services in systemd.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 11 Mar 2020
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2012-1101, GHSA-vxp6-p2r8-fgq7

## What is CVE-2012-1101?

CVE-2012-1101 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Systemd Project Systemd, published on 11 Mar 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

systemd 37-1 does not properly handle non-existent services, which causes a denial of service (failure of login procedure).

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-1101?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Systemd Project Systemd.

## How do I fix CVE-2012-1101?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2012-1101 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-1101 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Systemd Project Systemd

- [CVE-2015-7510](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-7510/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-1000082](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1000082/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-10156](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10156/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-9445](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9445/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-9217](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9217/): Null dereference in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2012-1101 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2012-1101 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Systemd Project Systemd, published on 11 Mar 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-1101 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Systemd Project Systemd. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-1101/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-1101/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-1101
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-1101
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2012-1101

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-1101/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.