Input validation error in GNU C Library (glibc) - CVE-2012-3405
Published: April 22, 2019 / Updated: June 3, 2025
Vulnerability identifier: #VU110116
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 6.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2012-3405
CWE-ID: CWE-20
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote non-authenticated attacker to perform service disruption.
The vfprintf function in stdio-common/vfprintf.c in libc in GNU C Library (aka glibc) 2.14 and other versions does not properly calculate a buffer length, which allows context-dependent attackers to bypass the FORTIFY_SOURCE format-string protection mechanism and cause a denial of service (segmentation fault and crash) via a format string with a large number of format specifiers that triggers "desynchronization within the buffer size handling," a different vulnerability than CVE-2012-3404.
Affected software
GNU C Library (glibc)
Gentoo Linux
sys-libs/glibc
Gentoo Linux
sys-libs/glibc
How to mitigate CVE-2012-3405
Install update from vendor's website.
sys-libs/glibc - update to 2.19-r1
External References
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1098.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-1200.html
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/07/11/17
- http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1589-1
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=833704
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201503-04
- https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=13446