# CVE-2012-3289: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash guest operating systems in VMware products by sending crafted traffic from a remote virtual device.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Jun 2012
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f3vw-hmc2-2j8x

## What is CVE-2012-3289?

CVE-2012-3289 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Vmware Esx, published on 14 Jun 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

VMware Workstation 8.x before 8.0.4, VMware Player 4.x before 4.0.4, VMware ESXi 3.5 through 5.0, and VMware ESX 3.5 through 4.1 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (guest OS crash) via crafted traffic from a remote virtual device.

Weakness: CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-3289?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Vmware Esx, Vmware Esxi, Vmware Player, Vmware Workstation.

## How do I fix CVE-2012-3289?

No fix has been published for CVE-2012-3289 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2012-3289 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-3289 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Vmware Esx

- [CVE-2013-1405](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-1405/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-1516](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-1516/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2013-3658](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-3658/): Path traversal in n/a (critical 9.4)
- [CVE-2012-3288](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-3288/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2008-4281](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4281/): Path traversal in n/a (critical 9.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2012-3289 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2012-3289 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Vmware Esx, published on 14 Jun 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-3289 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Vmware Esx. 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-2012-3289/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-3289/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-3289
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-3289
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2012-3289

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-3289/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.