What is CVE-2012-1823?

CVE-2012-1823 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Apple Mac OS X, classified under Command Injection. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2012-05-11.

How severe is CVE-2012-1823?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2012-1823 known to be exploited?

Yes. CVE-2012-1823 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-25), indicating it is being actively exploited. 90 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed.

RCE in Apple Mac OS X

CVE-2012-1823

sapi/cgi/cgi_main.c in PHP before 5.3.12 and 5.4.x before 5.4.2, when configured as a CGI script (aka php-cgi), does not properly handle query strings that lack an = (equals sign) character, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by placing command-line options in the query string, related to lack of skipping a certain php_getopt for the 'd' case.

Vulnerability class: Command Injection (OS Command Injection)

Published 2012-05-11 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 1.000 (100.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-17.

Very high probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — among the top 0.1% most-likely-to-be-exploited CVEs. 100th percentile — 100.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

The 30-day trend appears once there are two daily scores.

Affected products

Apple Mac OS X
HP Hp-Ux — versions b.11.23, b.11.31
PHP
Debian Linux — versions 6.0
Fedoraproject Fedora — versions 39, 40
openSUSE — versions 11.4, 12.1
Red Hat Application Stack — versions 2.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop — versions 6.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Eus — versions 5.6, 6.1, 6.2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server — versions 5.0, 6.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-77 — Command Injection

CISA KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities)

This CVE is on the CISA KEV catalog, added on 2022-03-25. CISA KEV inclusion means CISA has confirmed in-the-wild exploitation; US federal agencies are required to remediate within a published due date.

BOD 22-01 due date: 2022-04-15.

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

marc.info/ (vendor-advisory, Mailing List)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-05/msg00011.html (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
www.securitytracker.com/id (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry, Broken Link)
h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp (vendor-advisory, Broken Link)
www.mandriva.com/security/advisories (vendor-advisory, Broken Link)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-05/msg00002.html (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0546.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0568.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0569.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php (Exploit, Patch, Release Notes)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2012-1823?: CVE-2012-1823 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Apple Mac OS X, classified under Command Injection. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2012-05-11.
How severe is CVE-2012-1823?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2012-1823 known to be exploited?: Yes. CVE-2012-1823 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-25), indicating it is being actively exploited. 90 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed.