CVE-2012-5783 — commons-httpclient
CVE-2012-5783 is a security vulnerability in commons-httpclient:commons-httpclient. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Improper Certificate Validation in Apache Commons HttpClient
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Real-World Exposure
commons-httpclient:commons-httpclientReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Apache Commons HttpClient 3.x, as used in Amazon Flexible Payments Service (FPS) merchant Java SDK and other products, does not verify that the server hostname matches a domain name in the subject's Common Name (CN) or subjectAltName field of the X.509 certificate, which allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof SSL servers via an arbitrary valid certificate.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | commons-httpclient:commons-httpclient | ≥ 3.0 | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for commons-httpclient:commons-httpclient, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of commons-httpclient:commons-httpclient has shipped for CVE-2012-5783 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2012-5783 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2012-5783. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| JBEWP 5 for RHEL 5 | jakarta-commons-httpclient-1:3.1-2.1_patch_01.ep5.el5 | RHSA-2013:0682 |
| JBoss Enterprise BRMS Platform 5.3 | see advisory | RHSA-2013:1006 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | jakarta-commons-httpclient-1:3.0-7jpp.2 | RHSA-2013:0270 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.12 | see advisory | RHSA-2023:3954 |
| Red Hat JBoss A-MQ 6.3 | see advisory | RHSA-2017:0868 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.2 | see advisory | RHSA-2013:0679 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5 for RHEL 5 | jakarta-commons-httpclient-1:3.1-2.1_patch_01.ep5.el5 | RHSA-2013:0680 |
| Red Hat JBoss Operations Network 3.2 | see advisory | RHSA-2013:1853 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2012-5783 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2012-5783 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.