CVE-2012-5783

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.

Published: 2012-11-04 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2012-5783 is rated Moderate Risk (61.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 9.25%, 95th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +8.64% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize 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-2012-5783

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 0.62% 9.25% +8.64%
2 2026-03-04 0.39% 0.62% +0.23%
3 2026-03-01 0.39%

Full EPSS history (37 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2012-5783

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N 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:N)
No availability impact.
8.6 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2012-5783

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2012-5783

GHSA-3832-9276-x7gf · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Improper Certificate Validation in Apache Commons HttpClient

OS Trackers for CVE-2012-5783

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2012-5783 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (commons-httpclient), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-5783
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-5783
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2012-5783/
ubuntu low CVE-2012-5783 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (commons-httpclient, httpcomponents-client), 15 status rows across 11 suites (hardy, lucid, oneiric, precise, quantal, raring, saucy, trusty, upstream, utopic, vivid): not-affected 8, ignored 4, released 2, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2012-5783

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2012-5783

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache httpclient 3.1 cpe:2.3:a:apache:httpclient:3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 15.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2012-5783

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2013-02/msg00078.html Broken Link
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2013-04/msg00040.html Broken Link
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2013-04/msg00041.html Broken Link
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2013-04/msg00053.html Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0270.html Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0679.html Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0680.html Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0681.html Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0682.html Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-1147.html Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-1853.html Broken Link
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-0224.html Broken Link
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_ccs12.pdf Technical Description Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/58073 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2769-1 Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0868 Third Party Advisory
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/79984 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HTTPCLIENT-1265 Issue Tracking Patch Vendor Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence