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Fencer Intel
medium 5.0

CVE-2012-2336 json

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 qu…

published 2012-05-11 14 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2012-2329

cvss
5.0
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
52.1%
EPSS 52.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 98%
public exploits
4
Exploit-DB

Summary

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 lack an = (equals sign) character, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption) by placing command-line options in the query string, related to lack of skipping a certain php_getopt for the 'T' case. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2012-1823.

Patch / fix

  • php53 RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-gd RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-cli RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-dba RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-pdo RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-xml RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-imap RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-intl RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8

red hat advisories RHSA-2012:1047RHSA-2012:1046RHSA-2012:1045

  • php7 openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.0.14-1.4
  • php5 openSUSE Tumbleweed 5.6.28-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10290-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10344-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2012-2336 updated cvss 7.5

php: incomplete CVE-2012-1823 fix - missing filtering of -T and -h

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) php 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php53 5.3.3-13.el5_8, php-gd 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-cli 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-dba 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-pdo 5.1.6-39.el5_8, +32 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1045
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +19 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-common 5.3.3-14.el6_3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-zts 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +17 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-ldap 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-zts 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-imap 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-intl 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-snmp 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-ldap 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +6 more
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-zts 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-imap 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-intl 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-snmp 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +8 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1046
  • Red Hat RHEL Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) php 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php53 5.3.3-13.el5_8, php-gd 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-cli 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-dba 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-pdo 5.1.6-39.el5_8, +32 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1045
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 php
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-18834)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

52.09% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-29316 Apache + PHP < 5.3.12 / < 5.4.2 - Remote Code Execution + Scanner remote, 2013-10-31
  • EDB-29290 Apache + PHP < 5.3.12 / < 5.4.2 - cgi-bin Remote Code Execution remote, 2013-10-29
  • EDB-18836 PHP < 5.3.12 / < 5.4.2 - CGI Argument Injection remote, 2012-05-05
  • EDB-18834 PHP 5.3.12/5.4.2 - CGI Argument Injection (Metasploit) remote, 2012-05-04

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.