CVE-2012-3523

The STARTTLS implementation in nnrpd in INN before 2.5.3 does not properly restrict I/O buffering, which allows man-in-the-middle attackers to insert commands into encrypted sessions by sending a cleartext command that is processed after TLS is in place, related to a "plaintext command injection" attack, a similar issue to CVE-2011-0411.

Published: 2012-11-11 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2012-3523 is rated Moderate Risk (52.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.23%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2012-3523

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 2026-06-15 18.81% 3.23% -15.58%
2 2025-03-30 23.74% 18.81% -4.92%
3 2025-03-29 — 23.74% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2012-3523

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2012-3523

OS Trackers for CVE-2012-3523

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2012-3523 low priority: Debian including 2 source packages (inn, inn2), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-3523
gentoo low CVE-2012-3523: 1 GLSA(s) (201401-24), 1 atom(s) (net-nntp/inn); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2012-3523
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-3523
ubuntu low CVE-2012-3523 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (inn, inn2), 38 status rows across 19 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, hardy, lucid, natty, oneiric, precise, quantal, raring, saucy, trusty, upstream, utopic, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): ignored 19, not-affected 16, DNE 2, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-3523

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-3523

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
isc inn <= 2.5.2 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.4 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.4sec cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.4sec:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.4sec2 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.4sec2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.4unoff3 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.4unoff3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.4unoff4 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.4unoff4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.5 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.5.1 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.5.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.7 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 1.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:1.7.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 2.0 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 2.1 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 2.2 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 2.2.1 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:2.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 2.2.2 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:2.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 2.2.3 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:2.2.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
isc inn 2.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:isc:inn:2.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2012-3523

cvelogic Threat Intelligence