CVE-2012-1823

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to NVD's CVSS score.

Score elevated to 9.8 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-25), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, NVD CVSS v3
Trending — 3 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild
9.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV) — the reason this is sooner than the SSVC decision on this page at low mission impact
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS PROB: >99.9%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: Metasploit · Exploit-DB (verified) · other public PoCExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

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.

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8CRITICALhigh confidence
EG Risk
99
EG Risk 99/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity98% × 45%
The EG Score, 9.8 of 10.
Exploitation100% × 40%
Fixed at 100% for a CISA KEV listing: EchelonGraph's rule.
Automatability100% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: yes (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Attend at low mission impact; Act at medium or high.
Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it sooner than your standard update timelines at low mission impact and as soon as possible at medium or high.
EPSS PROB
>99.9%
EPSS %ILE
99th
KEV
⚠ Exploited

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Attend at low mission impact; Act at medium or high.

A fix is available. Apply it sooner than your standard update timelines at low mission impact and as soon as possible at medium or high.

Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 3 days & forensic triage if it is not.

In CISA KEV yes (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

CISA required action“Apply updates per vendor instructions.”

Quoted verbatim from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. CISA directs it at US federal civilian executive branch agencies under Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04, which replaced BOD 22-01 on 10 June 2026; it is not EchelonGraph's advice. CISA's notes: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-1823

Published

May 11, 2012

Last Modified

April 21, 2026

Advisory Details (4)

Auto-updated Oct 8, 2026
⚠️ Actively exploited (CISA KEV, CISA Vulnrichment). Patch available.
Web page
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0568.html
Web page
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0547.html
Web page
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0546.html
Web page

'[security bulletin] HPSBUX02791 SSRT100856 rev.1 - HP-UX Apache Web Server running PHP, Remote Execu' - MARC

http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=134012830914727&w=2

Patch Availability(5)

Vendor / EcosystemFix (by version range) / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntuphp5-cgi (5.3.10-1ubuntu3.1) @ precise2026-10-12ubuntu
redhatphp53-0:5.3.3-1.el5_6.22012-05-10redhat
redhatphp-0:5.3.3-3.el6_1.42012-05-10redhat
redhatphp-0:5.3.3-3.el6_2.82012-05-07redhat
redhatphp53-0:5.3.3-7.el5_82012-05-07redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Debian:6.0(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
php55.3.3-7 ... 5.3.3-7+squeeze8 (8 versions)
  • every version up to 5.3.3-7+squeeze9: fixed in 5.3.3-7+squeeze9
—

Weakness Classification(2)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(5)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 87× in last 7d / 390× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 1,765 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. None are among the latest 100 rows. The 1,665 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-12 05:05 UTCVendor advisory
  2. 2026-10-12 05:05 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  3. 2026-10-12 01:18 UTCVendor advisory
  4. 2026-10-12 01:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  5. 2026-10-11 21:32 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-10-11 21:32 UTCVendor advisory
  7. 2026-10-11 21:32 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  8. 2026-10-11 17:46 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-10-11 17:46 UTCVendor advisory
  10. 2026-10-11 17:45 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  11. 2026-10-11 13:54 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-10-11 13:54 UTCVendor advisory
  13. 2026-10-11 13:54 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  14. 2026-10-11 10:08 UTCVendor advisory
  15. 2026-10-11 10:07 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  16. 2026-10-11 06:19 UTCVendor advisory
  17. 2026-10-11 06:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  18. 2026-10-11 02:31 UTCVendor advisory
  19. 2026-10-11 02:31 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  20. 2026-10-10 22:43 UTCVendor advisory
  21. 2026-10-10 22:43 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  22. 2026-10-10 18:57 UTCVendor advisory
  23. 2026-10-10 18:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  24. 2026-10-10 15:10 UTCVendor advisory
  25. 2026-10-10 15:09 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-10-10 11:23 UTCVendor advisory
  2. 2026-10-10 11:23 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  3. 2026-10-10 07:37 UTCVendor advisory
  4. 2026-10-10 07:37 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  5. 2026-10-10 03:51 UTCVendor advisory
  6. 2026-10-10 03:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  7. 2026-10-10 00:05 UTCVendor advisory
  8. 2026-10-10 00:04 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  9. 2026-10-09 20:19 UTCVendor advisory
  10. 2026-10-09 20:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  11. 2026-10-09 16:32 UTCVendor advisory
  12. 2026-10-09 16:32 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  13. 2026-10-09 12:46 UTCVendor advisory
  14. 2026-10-09 12:46 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  15. 2026-10-09 09:00 UTCVendor advisory
  16. 2026-10-09 09:00 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  17. 2026-10-09 05:13 UTCVendor advisory
  18. 2026-10-09 05:13 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  19. 2026-10-09 01:26 UTCVendor advisory
  20. 2026-10-09 01:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  21. 2026-10-08 21:40 UTCVendor advisory
  22. 2026-10-08 21:40 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  23. 2026-10-08 17:54 UTCVendor advisory
  24. 2026-10-08 17:54 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  25. 2026-10-08 14:08 UTCVendor advisory
  26. 2026-10-08 14:07 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  27. 2026-10-08 10:17 UTCVendor advisory
  28. 2026-10-08 10:17 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  29. 2026-10-08 06:30 UTCVendor advisory
  30. 2026-10-08 06:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  31. 2026-10-08 02:44 UTCVendor advisory
  32. 2026-10-08 02:44 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  33. 2026-10-07 22:58 UTCVendor advisory
  34. 2026-10-07 22:58 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  35. 2026-10-07 19:12 UTCVendor advisory
  36. 2026-10-07 19:12 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  37. 2026-10-07 15:26 UTCVendor advisory
  38. 2026-10-07 15:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  39. 2026-10-07 11:40 UTCVendor advisory
  40. 2026-10-07 11:40 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  41. 2026-10-07 07:54 UTCVendor advisory
  42. 2026-10-07 07:54 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  43. 2026-10-07 04:08 UTCVendor advisory
  44. 2026-10-07 04:08 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  45. 2026-10-07 00:22 UTCVendor advisory
  46. 2026-10-07 00:22 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  47. 2026-10-06 20:35 UTCVendor advisory
  48. 2026-10-06 20:35 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  49. 2026-10-06 16:49 UTCVendor advisory
  50. 2026-10-06 16:49 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  51. 2026-10-06 13:03 UTCVendor advisory
  52. 2026-10-06 13:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  53. 2026-10-06 09:17 UTCVendor advisory
  54. 2026-10-06 09:17 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  55. 2026-10-06 05:31 UTCVendor advisory
  56. 2026-10-06 05:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  57. 2026-10-06 01:42 UTCVendor advisory
  58. 2026-10-06 01:42 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  59. 2026-10-05 21:55 UTCVendor advisory
  60. 2026-10-05 21:55 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  61. 2026-10-05 18:09 UTCVendor advisory
  62. 2026-10-05 18:09 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  63. 2026-10-05 14:23 UTCVendor advisory
  64. 2026-10-05 14:23 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  65. 2026-10-05 10:38 UTCVendor advisory
  66. 2026-10-05 10:38 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  67. 2026-10-05 06:51 UTCVendor advisory
  68. 2026-10-05 06:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  69. 2026-10-05 03:04 UTCVendor advisory
  70. 2026-10-05 03:04 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  71. 2026-10-04 23:19 UTCVendor advisory
  72. 2026-10-04 23:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  73. 2026-10-04 19:33 UTCVendor advisory
  74. 2026-10-04 19:33 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-3p37-hv77-x3rp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  75. 2026-10-04 15:47 UTCVendor advisory

Publicly available exploits

(10 references)

Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 Metasploit module, 4 Exploit-DB entries, 4 GitHub PoCs), as is 1 Nuclei detection template. A detection template checks whether a system is affected; it is not necessarily exploit code. Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly.

  • Exploit-DBEDB-29290✓ verified
    Published Oct 29, 2013

    Apache + PHP < 5.3.12 / < 5.4.2 - cgi-bin Remote Code Execution

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-18834✓ verified
    Published May 5, 2012

    PHP 5.3.12/5.4.2 - CGI Argument Injection (Metasploit)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-18836✓ verified
    Published May 5, 2012

    PHP < 5.3.12 / < 5.4.2 - CGI Argument Injection

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/multi/http/php_cgi_arg_injection✓ verified
    Published May 4, 2012

    PHP CGI Argument Injection

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCmujtaba815/metasploitable2-php-cgi-exploit
    Published Oct 2, 2026

    Exploited a known RCE vulnerability (PHP-CGI Argument Injection, CVE-2012-1823) on Metasploitable2 using Metasploit Framework, gained a shell, and documented post-exploitation

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoC0xl0k1/CVE-2012-1823
    Published Aug 24, 2023

    PHP CGI Argument Injection.

    Open source ↗
  • Nucleihttp/cves/2012/CVE-2012-1823.yaml
    Published Jul 20, 2021

    PHP CGI v5.3.12/5.4.2 Remote Code Execution

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCUnix13/metasploitable2
    Published Jul 5, 2019

    PHP-CGI-REMOTE_CVE-2012-1823, UnrealIRCd, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SSH bruteforce, VSFTPD2.3.4, samba CVE-2007-2447, JAVA RMI Server, distcc daemon, misconfigured NFS files, etc.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCtardummy01/oscp_scripts-1
    Published Oct 1, 2017

    First script, pgp-cgi-cve-2012-1823 BASH script

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-29316
    Published Oct 31, 2013

    Apache + PHP < 5.3.12 / < 5.4.2 - Remote Code Execution + Scanner

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same product + same vendor + same CWE)

Same vendor

1 shown

ubuntu:USN-1437-1

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2012-1823?
CVE-2012-1823 is a critical-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on May 11, 2012. sapi/cgi/cgimain.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,…
When was CVE-2012-1823 made public?
CVE-2012-1823 was made public on May 3, 2012: that is the date its CVE record's CNA, CERT/CC, gives for when the vulnerability was made public. The CVE record itself was published on May 11, 2012. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of April 21, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2012-1823 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2012-1823 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on March 25, 2022, affecting PHP PHP. KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate attention. A fix is available. Apply it.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2012-1823?
CVE-2012-1823 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
Which products are affected by CVE-2012-1823?
CVE-2012-1823 affects PHP PHP. The affected packages EchelonGraph has on record, with version ranges, are listed in the Affected Packages section of this page.
How do I remediate CVE-2012-1823?
A fix for CVE-2012-1823 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2012-1823

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2012-1823?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.

Book a Demo →Browse All CVEs