# CVE-2012-2121: Denial of service in n/a

> Guest OS administrators can crash the host system and leak memory via KVM device hotplug operations, requiring kernel updates.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.9 (`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 May 2012
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-c72r-fqqv-r8jm

## What is CVE-2012-2121?

CVE-2012-2121 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 May 2012. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The KVM implementation in the Linux kernel before 3.3.4 does not properly manage the relationships between memory slots and the iommu, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (memory leak and host OS crash) by leveraging administrative access to the guest OS to conduct hotunplug and hotplug operations on devices.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-2121?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2012-2121?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2012-2121 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-2121 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2012-2121 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2012-2121 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 May 2012. 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-2012-2121 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2012-2121/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2121/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-2121
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-2121
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2012-2121

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-2121/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.