CVE-2012-6538 — Sensitive Information Exposure in Linux

CWE-200 — Sensitive Information Exposure14 documents8 sources
Severity
1.9LOWNVD
EPSS
0.1%
top 76.68%
CISA KEV
Not in KEV
Exploit
No known exploits
Affected products
3
Linux KernelDebian LinuxRedhat Enterprise Linux
Timeline
PublishedMar 15
Latest updateApr 23

Description

The copy_to_user_auth function in net/xfrm/xfrm_user.c in the Linux kernel before 3.6 uses an incorrect C library function for copying a string, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel heap memory by leveraging the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability.

CVSS vector

AV:L/AC:M/C:P/I:N/A:NExploitability: 3.4 | Impact: 2.9

Affected Packages3 packages

▶Debianlinux/linux_kernel< 3.2.32-1+3
▶NVDlinux/linux_kernel3.5.7+159
▶debiandebian/linux< linux 3.2.32-1 (bookworm)

Also affects: Enterprise Linux 6.0

Patches

Patch: www.kernel.org ↗Patch: www.kernel.org ↗

🔴Vulnerability Details

2
GHSA
GHSA-q428-g62p-pgvx: The copy_to_user_auth function in net/xfrm/xfrm_user↗2022-05-14
▶
OSV
CVE-2012-6538: The copy_to_user_auth function in net/xfrm/xfrm_user↗2013-03-15
▶

📋Vendor Advisories

9
Ubuntu
Linux kernel vulnerabilities↗2012-11-30
▶
Ubuntu
Linux kernel vulnerabilities↗2012-11-30
▶
Ubuntu
Linux kernel vulnerabilities↗2012-11-30
▶
Ubuntu
Linux kernel (OMAP4) vulnerabilities↗2012-11-30
▶
Ubuntu
Linux kernel (OMAP4) vulnerabilities↗2012-11-30
▶

📄Research Papers

1
arXiv
Give LLMs a Security Course: Securing Retrieval-Augmented Code Generation via Knowledge Injection↗2025-04-23
▶

💬Community

1
Bugzilla
CVE-2012-6538 Kernel: xfrm_user: info leak in copy_to_user_auth↗2013-03-15
▶