CVE-2012-1854

Exp

Untrusted search path vulnerability in VBE6.dll in Microsoft Office 2003 SP3, 2007 SP2 and SP3, and 2010 Gold and SP1; Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); and Summit Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications SDK allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in the current working directory, as demonstrated by a directory that contains a .docx file, aka "Visual Basic for Applications Insecure Library Loading Vulnerability," as exploited in the wild in July 2012.

Published: 2012-07-10 Last update: 2026-04-22 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2012-1854 is rated Critical Active Threat (86.6/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.01%). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2026-04-13) affecting Microsoft / Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). a weakness (CWE-426) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2012-1854

Name: Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Insecure Library Loading Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2026-04-13

Action due: 2026-04-27

Required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2012-1854

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-22 4.64% 4.01% -0.62%
2 2026-05-04 4.27% 4.64% +0.37%
3 2026-04-23 — 4.27% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2012-1854

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
6.9 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.4 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2012-1854

NVD evaluator notes for CVE-2012-1854

Comment: Per: http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/426.html 'CWE-426: Untrusted Search Path'

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-1854

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
microsoft office 2003 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2003:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2007 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2007:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2007 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2007:sp3:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft office 2010 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2010:-:*:*:*:*:x64:*
microsoft office 2010 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2010:-:*:*:*:*:x86:*
microsoft office 2010 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2010:sp1:*:*:*:*:x64:*
microsoft office 2010 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office:2010:sp1:*:*:*:*:x86:*
microsoft visual_basic_for_applications — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visual_basic_for_applications:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
microsoft visual_basic_for_applications_sdk — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visual_basic_for_applications_sdk:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2012-1854

cvelogic Threat Intelligence