CVE-2012-4409

Exp

Stack-based buffer overflow in the check_file_head function in extra.c in mcrypt 2.6.8 and earlier allows user-assisted remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via an encrypted file with a crafted header containing long salt data that is not properly handled during decryption.

Published: 2012-11-21 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2012-4409 is rated High Exploit Risk (76/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 15.14%, 96th percentile). 3 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2012-4409

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
22928 exploit_db edb 2012-11-26 Exploit-DB ↗
22938 exploit_db edb 2012-11-26 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2012-4409

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 2026-07-19 15.02% 15.14% +0.12%
2 2026-06-15 58.74% 15.02% -43.72%
3 2025-03-30 — 58.74% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2012-4409

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-2012-4409

OS Trackers for CVE-2012-4409

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2012-4409 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (mcrypt), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-4409
gentoo normal CVE-2012-4409: 1 GLSA(s) (201405-19), 1 atom(s) (app-crypt/mcrypt); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2012-4409
ubuntu medium CVE-2012-4409 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (mcrypt), 16 status rows across 16 suites (hardy, lucid, natty, oneiric, precise, quantal, raring, saucy, trusty, upstream, utopic, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 9, ignored 5, DNE 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-4409

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-4409

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mcrypt mcrypt <= 2.6.8 cpe:2.3:a:mcrypt:mcrypt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mcrypt mcrypt 2.6.4 cpe:2.3:a:mcrypt:mcrypt:2.6.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mcrypt mcrypt 2.6.5 cpe:2.3:a:mcrypt:mcrypt:2.6.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mcrypt mcrypt 2.6.6 cpe:2.3:a:mcrypt:mcrypt:2.6.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mcrypt mcrypt 2.6.7 cpe:2.3:a:mcrypt:mcrypt:2.6.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2012-4409

cvelogic Threat Intelligence