CVE-2012-0008
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedUntrusted search path vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1, 2010, and 2010 SP1 allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse add-in in an unspecified directory, aka "Visual Studio Add-In Vulnerability."
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceUntrusted search path vulnerability in Visual Studio allows local users to gain privileges by placing a malicious add-in in an unspecified directory that Visual Studio searches for add-ins. The application loads the Trojan horse add-in without proper validation, enabling local privilege escalation.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 2008= 2010CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Visual Studio versionCheck the Visual Studio installation through Programs and Features in Control Panel, or inspect the product version in the registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\ for version 10.0 or 9.0, or check the Help > About dialog within the application.Affected if The installed version is Visual Studio 2008 (version 9.0) or Visual Studio 2010 (version 10.0).
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Locate Visual Studio add-in search pathsFor Visual Studio 2010, check the registry key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\AutomationOptions\LookInFolders or the Environment Add-in options. For Visual Studio 2008, check HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\AutomationOptions\LookInFolders. Default paths typically include the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio X\Addins\ folder and the Common7\IDE\Addins\ folder in the Visual Studio installation directory.Affected if One or more add-in directories exist on the system.
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Enumerate add-in files in search pathsList all files with .addin or .dll extensions in the identified add-in directories. Review each add-in file's origin and verify it was intentionally installed.Affected if Any add-in files are present in the Visual Studio add-in search paths.
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Check write permissions on add-in directoriesUse icacls or right-click Properties > Security to verify which users have Write or Create Files permissions on each add-in directory. Focus on whether standard users or low-privilege accounts can write to these locations.Affected if Non-admin users or low-privilege accounts have Write permissions to any directory in Visual Studio's add-in search path.
You are affected if Visual Studio 2008 or 2010 is installed AND either untrusted add-ins exist in the search paths OR low-privilege users have write access to add-in directories where a malicious DLL could be placed.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply Microsoft security updates for Visual Studio 2008 SP1, 2010, and 2010 SP1. Restrict write access to directories in Visual Studio's add-in search path and ensure only trusted, signed add-ins from secure locations are loaded.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-0008 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-0008 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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