CVE-2017-12168 Denial of service in Linux kernel before 4.9

What is CVE-2017-12168?

CVE-2017-12168 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 20 Sep 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The access_pmu_evcntr function in arch/arm64/kvm/sys_regs.c in the Linux kernel before 4.8.11 allows privileged KVM guest OS users to cause a denial of service (assertion failure and host OS crash) by accessing the Performance Monitors Cycle Count Register (PMCCNTR).

Weakness: CWE-617

Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-12168?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2017-12168?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2017-12168 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-12168 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2017-12168, GHSA-2rfq-4jx8-3hp9.