CVE-2012-1723 — Red Hat
CRITICALCVE-2012-1723 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-284 vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-03) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Unspecified vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) component in Oracle Java SE 7 update 4 and earlier, 6 update 32 and earlier, 5 update 35 and earlier, and 1.4.2_37 and…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-03 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-03-24.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2012-1723.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2012-1723 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
Unspecified vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) component in Oracle Java SE 7 update 4 and earlier, 6 update 32 and earlier, 5 update 35 and earlier, and 1.4.2_37 and earlier allows remote attackers to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability via unknown vectors related to Hotspot.
Affected Products
jdkoraclejreoracleenterprise linux desktopredhatenterprise linux eusredhatenterprise linux serverredhatenterprise linux server ausredhatResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Java Applet - Field Bytecode Verifier Cache Remote Code Execution (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Jul 11, 2012
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Remediation status
No fixed release is recorded for CVE-2012-1723 yet. Track the upstream advisory, and apply the exposure-reduction steps below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | java-1.6.0-openjdk-1:1.6.0.0-1.27.1.10.8.el5_8 | RHSA-2012:0730 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | java-1.6.0-openjdk-1:1.6.0.0-1.48.1.11.3.el6_2 | RHSA-2012:0729 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | java-1.7.0-openjdk-1:1.7.0.5-2.2.1.el6_3 | RHSA-2012:1009 |
| Supplementary for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | java-1.6.0-sun-1:1.6.0.33-1jpp.1.el5_8 | RHSA-2012:0734 |
| Supplementary for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | java-1.7.0-oracle-1:1.7.0.5-1jpp.1.el6 | RHSA-2012:1019 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2012-1723 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.