What is CVE-2012-2122?

CVE-2012-2122 is a vulnerability in Mariadb, classified under Improper Authentication. Published 2012-06-26.

Is CVE-2012-2122 known to be exploited?

49 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Auth bypass in Mariadb

CVE-2012-2122

sql/password.c in Oracle MySQL 5.1.x before 5.1.63, 5.5.x before 5.5.24, and 5.6.x before 5.6.6, and MariaDB 5.1.x before 5.1.62, 5.2.x before 5.2.12, 5.3.x before 5.3.6, and 5.5.x before 5.5.23, when running in certain environments with certain implementations of the memcmp function, allows remote attackers to bypass authentication by repeatedly authenticating with the same incorrect password, which eventually causes a token comparison to succeed due to an improperly-checked return value.

Vulnerability class: Broken Authentication

Published 2012-06-26 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 5.1 (Medium). Vector: AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.965 (99.9th percentile), scored 2026-10-19.

Very high probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — among the top 0.1% most-likely-to-be-exploited CVEs. 100th percentile — 99.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.965 · newest: 0.965 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Mariadb — versions 5.1.41, 5.1.42, 5.1.44
Oracle MySQL — versions 5.1.51, 5.1.52, 5.1.53

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-287 — Improper Authentication

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

bugs.mysql.com/bug.php (Exploit)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/53911 (Exploit, vdb-entry)
www.exploit-db.com/exploits/19092 (exploit)
secunia.com/advisories/53372 (third-party-advisory)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201308-06.xml (vendor-advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-08/msg00007.html (vendor-advisory)
community.rapid7.com/community/metasploit/blog/2012/06/11/cve-2012-2122-a-tragi… (Exploit)
securitytracker.com/id (vdb-entry)
secunia.com/advisories/49417 (Vendor Advisory, third-party-advisory)
seclists.org/oss-sec/2012/q2/493 (mailing-list, Patch)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2012-2122?: CVE-2012-2122 is a vulnerability in Mariadb, classified under Improper Authentication. Published 2012-06-26.
Is CVE-2012-2122 known to be exploited?: 49 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.