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Spice GtkApplication · Spice Gtk Project

CVE-2017-12194

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-03-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 0.34 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A flaw was found in the way spice-client processed certain messages sent from the server. An attacker, having control of malicious spice-server, could use this flaw to crash the client or execute arbitrary code with permissions of the user running the client. spice-gtk versions through 0.34 are believed to be vulnerable.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

A buffer overflow or similar memory corruption vulnerability exists in spice-gtk versions through 0.34 where the client improperly validates messages received from the spice server. A malicious or compromised spice-server can send specially crafted messages to trigger the flaw, leading to client crash or arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running the client.

MitigationUpgrade spice-gtk to version 0.35 or later which contains the fix. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict client connections to trusted spice servers only via network segmentation or server allowlisting to reduce attack surface.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Spice GtkApplication
Affected:<= 0.34

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed spice-gtk package version
    On Debian/Ubuntu systems, run: dpkg -l | grep spice-gtk or apt list --installed 2>/dev/null | grep spice-gtk. On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora, run: rpm -qa | grep spice-gtk. On general Linux, check /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ or /usr/lib/ for libspice-client-gtk.so* files and review associated package metadata.
    Affected if The installed version is 0.34 or lower, or no version information is returned but the library file exists from an older package build.
  2. Query package manager for spice-gtk version directly
    Run: apt-cache policy gir1.2-spice-gtk-3.0 (Debian/Ubuntu) or yum info spice-gtk or dnf info spice-gtk (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora). This displays the installed package version from the package database.
    Affected if The version listed is 0.34 or below, indicating the unpatched vulnerable version is installed.
  3. Verify spice client components are present
    Check for the presence of spice-gtk related files in the system: ls -la /usr/lib/*/libspice-client-gtk* or ls -la /usr/share/spice-gtk/ (if that directory exists). Also check if the spicy client binary or Remote Viewer with spice-gtk support is installed: which spicy or which remote-viewer.
    Affected if Spice client components are installed and the version cannot be determined or is confirmed to be 0.34 or earlier.
  4. Determine if spice client connections are in active use
    Review running processes for spice client usage: ps aux | grep -i spice. Check user's desktop environment for active spice client sessions or review any automation scripts that invoke spice client tools.
    Affected if The spice-gtk library is loaded by any running process or is routinely invoked, and the underlying version is vulnerable.

A user is affected if spice-gtk version 0.34 or lower is installed and the spice client is used to connect to spice servers, since the vulnerability is triggered by malicious server messages to the client.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 0.34
Interim mitigation

Upgrade spice-gtk to version 0.35 or later which contains the fix. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict client connections to trusted spice servers only via network segmentation or server allowlisting to reduce attack surface.

Recommended fix High confidence

Any spice-gtk version newer than 0.34 (e.g., 0.35 or later)

  1. 1. Identify the current installed version of spice-gtk by running: rpm -q spice-gtk3 or dpkg -l libspice-client-gtk-3.0
  2. 2. Update the spice-gtk package to the latest available version in your distribution's repositories
  3. 3. For Red Hat-based systems: yum update spice-gtk3 or dnf update spice-gtk3
  4. 4. For Debian-based systems: apt-get update && apt-get install libspice-client-gtk-3.0
  5. 5. Restart any running Spice client sessions to ensure the updated library is loaded
  6. 6. Verify the installed version is greater than 0.34

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Spice Gtk Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-12194 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data