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CVE-2017-12986

29
FAUCET Score

CVE-2017-12986 is a critical buffer over-read vulnerability affecting tcpdump versions prior to 4.9.2, specifically within its IPv6 routing header parser. With a CVSS score of 9.8, this flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to achieve high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts with low attack complexity. While no public exploit code or active exploitation has been confirmed, the vulnerability has garnered some community attention and media coverage, indicating its potential significance.

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
3.35%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
87.5%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-28
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0335 is in the 80th percentile among its peer group of 36,897 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-2017-12986Low

tcpdump: Buffer over-read in print-rt6.c:rt6_print() in IPv6 routing header parser

Sep 13, 2017

References

access.redhat.com / errata/RHEA-2018:0705
github.com / the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump/commit/7ac73d6cd41e9d4ac0ca7e6830ca390e195bb21c
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