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CVE-2017-12985

29
FAUCET Score

CVE-2017-12985 describes a critical buffer over-read vulnerability in the IPv6 parser of tcpdump versions prior to 4.9.2. This flaw, located in print-ip6.c:ip6_print(), could allow an unauthenticated attacker to achieve high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability over the network. Despite its critical CVSS score of 9.8, there is no evidence of active exploitation, nor are public exploit modules available in Metasploit, Nuclei, or ExploitDB. Community discussion and media coverage are minimal, with only one article noting its fix among 90 other CVEs in tcpdump.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 4.9.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:tcpdump:tcpdump:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

9.8CRITICAL

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
3.46%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
87.8%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0346 is in the 80th percentile among its peer group of 36,862 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.3 Mastodon, and 2.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (4)

github_advisorypatch availablevia nvd_reference
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: tcpdump-14:4.9.2-3.el7
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: tcpdump
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: tcpdump

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2017-12985Low

tcpdump: Buffer over-read in print-ip6.c:ip6_print() in IPv6 parser

Sep 13, 2017

References

access.redhat.com / errata/RHEA-2018:0705
github.com / the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump/commit/66df248b49095c261138b5a5e34d341a6bf9ac7f
Issue TrackingPatchThird Party Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201709-23
support.apple.com / HT208221
debian.org / security/2017/dsa-3971
securitytracker.com / id/1039307
tcpdump.org / tcpdump-changes.txt
Vendor Advisory