Multiple integer overflows in GNU Grep before 2.11 might allow context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors involving a long input line that triggers a heap-based buffer overflow.
CVE-2012-5667
This CVE was only ever scored under CVSS v2.0. NVD CVSS v2.0 base 4.4 — v2 rates that MEDIUM (v2 bands: LOW 0.0–3.9 / MEDIUM 4.0–6.9 / HIGH 7.0–10.0; v2 has no CRITICAL band). Vector AV:L/AC:M/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 1.0% exploitation probability in the next 30 days, which is reflected in EG Risk but does not lift the v2 base. Confidence: LOW.
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v2.0 (legacy)
- 4.4MEDIUMNVD never assigned a CVSS v3 rating to this CVE
- EG Score
- 4.4(low)
- EG Risk
- 50(Track)EG Risk 50/100SSVC: 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 computedSeverity44% × 45%Exploitation65% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 1%
- EPSS %ILE
- 61%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
January 3, 2013
Last Modified
April 29, 2026
References (18)
- secalert@redhathttp://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=8fcf61523644df42e1905c81bed26838e0b04f91
- secalert@redhathttp://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=cbbc1a45b9f843c811905c97c90a5d31f8e6c189
- secalert@redhathttp://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=grep.git%3Ba=shortlog%3Bh=v2.11
- secalert@redhathttp://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grep/2012-12/msg00004.html
- secalert@redhathttp://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/12/22/6
- secalert@redhathttp://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1447.html
- secalert@redhathttp://www.securityfocus.com/bid/57033
- secalert@redhathttps://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grep/+bug/1091473
- secalert@redhathttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=889935
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=8fcf61523644df42e1905c81bed26838e0b04f91
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=cbbc1a45b9f843c811905c97c90a5d31f8e6c189
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=grep.git%3Ba=shortlog%3Bh=v2.11
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grep/2012-12/msg00004.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/12/22/6
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1447.html
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2012-5667(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(1)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhat | grep-0:2.20-3.el6 | 2015-07-20 | redhat |
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
(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| grep | — | 2.11-1 | — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| grep | — | 2.11-1 | — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| grep | — | 2.11-1 | — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| grep | — | 2.11-1 | — |
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 6× in last 7d / 21× 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.
Showing the most recent 100 of 127 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-08-27 14:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-26 14:40 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-25 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-24 07:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-24 00:22 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-21 23:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 22:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-19 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-18 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 02:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-15 01:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-12 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-09 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-08 16:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-07 22:26 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-07 16:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-06 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 19:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-04 15:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-02 02:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 01:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-28 15:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 13:46 UTCEG score recompute▲ 4.40
- 2026-07-25 14:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-23 01:08 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-23 00:12 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 21:50 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 15:20 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:27 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-19 02:25 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-15 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:26 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-11 08:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 10:29 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-05 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 21:43 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 22:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-11 13:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 13:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-07 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
Publicly available exploits
(1 reference)Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- Exploit-DBEDB-23779✓ verifiedFirst seen Dec 31, 2012
Grep < 2.11 - Integer Overflow Crash (PoC)
Open source ↗
Frequently asked(4)
What is CVE-2012-5667?
When was CVE-2012-5667 disclosed?
Is CVE-2012-5667 actively exploited?
How do I remediate CVE-2012-5667?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2012-5667
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2012-5667?
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