Skip to content
Fencer Intel
high 7.2

CVE-2012-5519 json

CUPS 1.4.4, when running in certain Linux distributions such as Debian GNU/Linux, stores the web interface administrator key in /var/run/cu…

published 2012-11-20 13 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2012-5411

cvss
7.2
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.1%
EPSS 2.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 82%
public exploits
1
Metasploit

Summary

CUPS 1.4.4, when running in certain Linux distributions such as Debian GNU/Linux, stores the web interface administrator key in /var/run/cups/certs/0 using certain permissions, which allows local users in the lpadmin group to read or write arbitrary files as root by leveraging the web interface.

Patch / fix

  • cups Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.5.3-2.7

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2012-5519

  • cups RHEL 5 1:1.3.7-30.el5_9.3
  • cups RHEL 6 1:1.4.2-50.el6_4.4
  • cups-lpd RHEL 5 1:1.3.7-30.el5_9.3
  • cups-lpd RHEL 6 1:1.4.2-50.el6_4.4
  • cups-php RHEL 6 1:1.4.2-50.el6_4.4
  • cups-libs RHEL 5 1:1.3.7-30.el5_9.3
  • cups-libs RHEL 6 1:1.4.2-50.el6_4.4

red hat advisories RHSA-2013:0580

  • cups154 SLE Module for Legacy 12 1.5.4-9.1
  • cups SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12, SLED 12 +1 more 1.7.5-9.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2015:1044-1SUSE-SU-2015:1044-2SUSE-SU-2015:1041-1

  • cups openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.1.3-2.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10075-1

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-2012-5519 updated cvss 7.4

cups: privilege escalation for users of the CUPS SystemGroup group

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) cups 1.3.7-30.el5_9.3, cups-lpd 1.3.7-30.el5_9.3, cups-libs 1.3.7-30.el5_9.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) cups 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-lpd 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-php 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-libs 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) cups 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-lpd 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-php 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-libs 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) cups 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-lpd 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-php 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-libs 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) cups 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-lpd 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-php 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-libs 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) cups 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-lpd 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-php 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-libs 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4
    +3 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) cups 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-lpd 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-php 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-libs 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) cups 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-lpd 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-php 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-libs 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) cups 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-lpd 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-php 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4, cups-libs 1.4.2-50.el6_4.4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2013:0580

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 (Metasploit post/multi/escalate/cups_root_file_read)

Exploit prediction

2.13% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 82% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-264 Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

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.