What is CVE-2012-0879?

CVE-2012-0879 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2012-05-17.

How severe is CVE-2012-0879?

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

Resource exhaustion in Linux Kernel

CVE-2012-0879

The I/O implementation for block devices in the Linux kernel before 2.6.33 does not properly handle the CLONE_IO feature, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (I/O instability) by starting multiple processes that share an I/O context.

Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)

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: 0.005 (39.1th percentile), scored 2026-10-19.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 39th percentile — 39.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 10.04
Debian Linux — versions 6.0
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop — versions 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension — versions 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server — versions 11

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-400 — Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

References

rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0531.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
git.kernel.org/
www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1408-1 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/02/23/5 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
www.securitytracker.com/id (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
www.debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2469 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0481.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-05/msg00013.html (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/48545 (Not Applicable, third-party-advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2012-0879?: CVE-2012-0879 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2012-05-17.
How severe is CVE-2012-0879?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.