CVE-2012-3406 Memory corruption in n/a

Medium 6.8 Published 10 Feb 2014 Updated 6 Aug 2024

Attackers can cause crashes or execute code by exploiting a flaw in glibc's vfprintf function that bypasses format-string protections.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2012-3406?

CVE-2012-3406 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 10 Feb 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The vfprintf function in stdio-common/vfprintf.c in GNU C Library (aka glibc) 2.5, 2.12, and probably other versions does not "properly restrict the use of" the alloca function when allocating the SPECS array, which allows context-dependent attackers to bypass the FORTIFY_SOURCE format-string protection mechanism and cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted format string using positional parameters and a large number of format specifiers, a different vulnerability than CVE-2012-3404 and CVE-2012-3405.

Weakness: CWE-264

Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-3406?

It affects 4 products.

Linux distribution packages (16)

`glibc` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-common` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-debuginfo-common` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-headers` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-utils` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`nscd` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-common` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-debuginfo-common` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-headers` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`glibc-utils` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`
`nscd` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server	All versions	`0:2.5-81.el5_8.4`

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Gnu Glibc, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Enterprise Virtualization.

How do I fix CVE-2012-3406?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2012-3406 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-3406 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2012-3406, GHSA-8mj9-m673-h2gf, RHSA-2012:1097.