CVE-2012-2738

VteTerminal < 0.32.2 - Authenticated Denial of Service via Escape Sequence with Large Repeat Count

Title source: llm

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2012-2738. PoCs published by Kevin Fenzi.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This exploit leverages a vulnerability in VTE (Virtual Terminal Emulator) by sending malformed escape sequences to trigger excessive memory and CPU consumption, leading to a denial-of-service condition.

Description

The VteTerminal in gnome-terminal (vte) before 0.32.2 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (long loop and CPU consumption) via an escape sequence with a large repeat count value.

Exploits (1)

exploitdb WORKING POC VERIFIED

by Kevin Fenzi · textdoslinux

https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/37477

View Code ZIP pw:eip

This exploit leverages a vulnerability in VTE (Virtual Terminal Emulator) by sending malformed escape sequences to trigger excessive memory and CPU consumption, leading to a denial-of-service condition.

Classification

Working Poc 90%

Attack Type

Dos

Complexity

Trivial

Reliability

Reliable

Target: VTE (Virtual Terminal Emulator)

No auth needed

Prerequisites: Access to a terminal session using VTE

MITRE ATT&CK

T1499 - Endpoint Denial of Service

mistral-large-3 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

References (10)

Core 10

Core References

Mailing List, Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory x_refsource_fedora

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2012-July/083403.html

Issue Tracking x_refsource_confirm

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=676090

Various Sources x_refsource_confirm

http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/vte/0.32/vte-0.32.2.changes

Various Sources x_refsource_confirm

http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/vte/0.32/vte-0.32.2.news

Exploit vdb-entry x_refsource_bid

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/54281

Mailing List mailing-list x_refsource_mlist

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/06/15/11

Mailing List mailing-list x_refsource_mlist

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/05/23/6

Vendor Advisory x_refsource_confirm

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjan2015-2370101.html

Mailing List vendor-advisory x_refsource_suse

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2012-08/msg00001.html

Mailing List, Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory x_refsource_fedora

http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2012-July/083398.html

Scores

EPSS 0.1115

EPSS Percentile 95.4%

Details

CWE

CWE-119

Status published

Products (50)

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.9.0

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.9.2

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.10

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.10.1

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.10.2

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.10.3

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.10.4

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.10.5

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.10.6

nalin_dahyabhai/vte 0.10.7

... and 40 more

Published Jul 22, 2012

Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026