CVE-2012-4792 — IE
HIGHCVE-2012-4792 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Use After Free vulnerability in microsoft ie. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2024-07-23) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 through 8 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted web site that triggers access to an object that…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-07-23. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2024-08-13.
- 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-2012-4792.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2012-4792 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 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
Use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 through 8 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted web site that triggers access to an object that (1) was not properly allocated or (2) is deleted, as demonstrated by a CDwnBindInfo object, and exploited in the wild in December 2012.
Affected Products
iemicrosoftResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Microsoft Internet Explorer - CButton Object Use-After-Free (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Jan 2, 2013
Microsoft Internet Explorer - CDwnBindInfo Object Use-After-Free (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Dec 31, 2012
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every microsoft ie deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2012-4792 yet — track the microsoft ie advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2012-4792 being exploited in your environment?
Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.