CVE-2012-2311

HIGHCVSS v2 · 7.57.5—
EchelonGraph scoreLOW confidence

This CVE was only ever scored under CVSS v2.0. NVD CVSS v2.0 base 7.5 — v2 rates that HIGH (v2 bands: LOW 0.0–3.9 / MEDIUM 4.0–6.9 / HIGH 7.0–10.0; v2 has no CRITICAL band). Vector AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P. CVSS v2 is an older, coarser metric than v3.1/v4.0 (no Scope, no User Interaction, no Attack Requirements), so it is not directly comparable to a v3 or v4 score. NVD has never re-scored this record under v3. EPSS predicts 69.6% exploitation probability in the next 30 days, which is reflected in EG Risk but does not lift the v2 base. Confidence: LOW.

Sources: epss, nvd_v2
Weaponized
7.5EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch this weekExploitation is likely or a public exploit exists.
  • High exploitation likelihood — EPSS 70%
  • Public exploit code is available (Exploit-DB (verified), epss top5pct, epss high, public exploit)
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 70%CVSS v2: 7.5Exploit: Exploit-DB (verified) · epss top5pct · epss high · public exploitExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

sapi/cgi/cgi_main.c in PHP before 5.3.13 and 5.4.x before 5.4.3, when configured as a CGI script (aka php-cgi), does not properly handle query strings that contain a %3D sequence but no = (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. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2012-1823.

CVSS v2.0 (legacy)
7.5HIGHNVD never assigned a CVSS v3 rating to this CVE
EG Score
7.5(low)
EG Risk
66(Track)
EG Risk 66/100SSVC: Track

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
Severity75% × 45%
Exploitation70% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
70%
EPSS %ILE
99%
KEV
Not listed

Published

May 11, 2012

Last Modified

April 29, 2026

References (34)

Patch Availability(1)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntuphp5-cgi (5.2.4-2ubuntu5.24) @ hardy2026-05-29ubuntu

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 rangeFixed inDependents
php55.3.3-7 ... 5.3.3-7+squeeze8 (8 versions)5.3.3-7+squeeze9—

Weakness Classification(1)

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

All Vendor Advisories

(1)

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 3× in last 7d / 8× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. 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. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-08-26 14:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-23 00:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-08-21 23:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-19 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-16 02:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-08-15 01:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-08-07 16:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-06 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-28 15:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-26 13:45 UTCEG score recompute▲ 7.50
  11. 2026-07-25 14:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-23 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-23 01:07 UTCEG score recompute▼ 6.50
  14. 2026-07-23 00:10 UTCEG score recompute▲ 6.50
  15. 2026-07-22 21:49 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-21 15:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-20 17:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-20 17:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-18 10:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-15 16:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-15 16:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-15 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-13 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 57 more
  1. 2026-07-11 08:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-09 19:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-04 06:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-02 14:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-30 23:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-30 23:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-27 03:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-27 03:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-21 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-21 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-15 17:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-13 22:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-12 23:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-11 13:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-10 22:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-10 13:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-07 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-07 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-05 22:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-05 22:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-04 13:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-05-29 04:37 UTCEG score recompute
  43. 2026-05-29 04:37 UTCVendor advisory
  44. 2026-05-29 04:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
  45. 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-05-27 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-05-27 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-05-24 16:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-05-22 21:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-05-22 21:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-05-22 21:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-05-18 21:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-05-18 21:29 UTCEPSS rescore

Publicly available exploits

(4 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (4 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • Exploit-DBEDB-29316
    First seen Oct 31, 2013

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

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-29290✓ verified
    First seen Oct 29, 2013

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

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

    PHP < 5.3.12 / < 5.4.2 - CGI Argument Injection

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-18834✓ verified
    First seen May 4, 2012

    PHP 5.3.12/5.4.2 - CGI Argument Injection (Metasploit)

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(4)

What is CVE-2012-2311?
CVE-2012-2311 is a high vulnerability published on May 11, 2012. sapi/cgi/cgimain.c in PHP before 5.3.13 and 5.4.x before 5.4.3, when configured as a CGI script (aka php-cgi), does not properly handle query strings that contain a %3D sequence but no = (equals sign) character, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by placing command-line options…
When was CVE-2012-2311 disclosed?
CVE-2012-2311 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on May 11, 2012, with the most recent update on April 29, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2012-2311 actively exploited?
CVE-2012-2311 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 70% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 0.7% of all scored CVEs.
How do I remediate CVE-2012-2311?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2012-2311, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

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