libdbus 1.5.x and earlier, when used in setuid or other privileged programs in X.org and possibly other products, allows local users to gain privileges and execute arbitrary code via the DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS environment variable. NOTE: libdbus maintainers state that this is a vulnerability in the applications that do not cleanse environment variables, not in libdbus itself: "we do not support use of libdbus in setuid binaries that do not sanitize their environment before their first call into libdbus."
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2012-3524 is rated High Exploit Risk (69.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.51%, 90th percentile). Core evidence: 4 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21323 | exploit_db | edb | 2012-07-17 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ | |
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ | |
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ |
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 | 30.84% | 4.51% | -26.32% |
| 2 | 2026-06-07 | 36.15% | 30.84% | -5.31% |
| 3 | 2026-05-25 | — | 36.15% | — |
Full EPSS history (22 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.9 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
3.4 | 10.0 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2012-3524 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (dbus, glib2.0), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-3524 |
gentoo
|
high | CVE-2012-3524: 1 GLSA(s) (201406-01), 2 atom(s) (dev-libs/glib, sys-apps/dbus); latest impact high. | https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2012-3524 |
redhat
|
high | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-3524 |
suse
|
high | CVE-2012-3524 severity important: SUSE including 219 source package names (dbus-1-1.10.12-2.1, dbus-1-1.12.2-1.76, …), 402 product×package rows across 45 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12, … (45 product lines)): Fixed 399, Known Not Affected 3. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-3524/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2012-3524 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dbus), 6 status rows across 6 suites (hardy, lucid, natty, oneiric, precise, upstream): released 5, needs-triage 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-3524 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| freedesktop | libdbus | <= 1.5.12 | cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:libdbus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| freedesktop | libdbus | 1.5.0 | cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:libdbus:1.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| freedesktop | libdbus | 1.5.2 | cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:libdbus:1.5.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| freedesktop | libdbus | 1.5.4 | cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:libdbus:1.5.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| freedesktop | libdbus | 1.5.6 | cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:libdbus:1.5.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| freedesktop | libdbus | 1.5.8 | cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:libdbus:1.5.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| freedesktop | libdbus | 1.5.10 | cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:libdbus:1.5.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |