What is CVE-2011-4621?

CVE-2011-4621 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition (Infinite Loop). CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2012-05-17.

How severe is CVE-2011-4621?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

CVE-2011-4621

The Linux kernel before 2.6.37 does not properly implement a certain clock-update optimization, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system hang) via an application that executes code in a loop.

Published 2012-05-17 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (36.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 36th percentile — 36.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-835 — Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition (Infinite Loop)

References

github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/f26f9aff6aaf67e9a430d16c266f91b13a5bff64 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
ftp.osuosl.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.37 (Broken Link)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2011/12/21/6 (mailing-list, Exploit, Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
git.kernel.org/

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2011-4621?: CVE-2011-4621 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition (Infinite Loop). CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2012-05-17.
How severe is CVE-2011-4621?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.