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Fencer Intel
medium 6.8

CVE-2012-4409 json

Stack-based buffer overflow in the check_file_head function in extra.c in mcrypt 2.6.8 and earlier allows user-assisted remote attackers to…

published 2012-11-21 13 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2012-4346

cvss
6.8
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
15.1%
EPSS 15.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
2
Exploit-DB

Summary

Stack-based buffer overflow in the check_file_head function in extra.c in mcrypt 2.6.8 and earlier allows user-assisted remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via an encrypted file with a crafted header containing long salt data that is not properly handled during decryption.

Patch / fix

  • mcrypt Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.6.8-1.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2012-4409

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-2012-4409 updated cvss 5.1

mcrypt: buffer overflow when processing encrypted file headers

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    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. Published
  2. First public exploit (EDB-22938)

Exploit prediction

15.08% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-22938 mcrypt 2.6.8 - Stack Buffer Overflow (PoC) dos, 2012-11-26
  • EDB-22928 mcrypt 2.5.8 - Local Stack Overflow local, 2012-11-26
  • packetstormsecurity.org http://packetstormsecurity.org/files/116268/mcrypt-2.6.8-Buffer-Overflow-Proof-Of-Concept.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

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.