CVE-2012-0447
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 · uneditedMozilla Firefox 4.x through 9.0, Thunderbird 5.0 through 9.0, and SeaMonkey before 2.7 do not properly initialize data for image/vnd.microsoft.icon images, which allows remote attackers to obtain potentially sensitive information by reading a PNG image that was created through conversion from an ICO image.
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 confidenceMozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey fail to properly initialize memory data when converting image/vnd.microsoft.icon (ICO) images to PNG format. This improper initialization causes potentially sensitive information from uninitialized memory to be included in the converted PNG output, leading to information disclosure.
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= 4.0= 4.0.1= 5.0= 5.0.1= 6.0= 6.0.1= 6.0.2= 7.0= 8.0= 8.0.1= 9.0= 5.0= 6.0= 6.0.1= 6.0.2= 7.0= 8.0= 9.0<= 2.7= 1.0= 1.0.1= 1.0.2= 1.0.3= 1.0.4= 1.0.5= 1.0.6= 1.0.7= 1.0.8= 1.0.9= 1.1CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
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 Mozilla productCheck the program menu or running processes to determine if Firefox, Thunderbird, or SeaMonkey is installed. Use 'About' menu or check installed programs list.Affected if Any of these three products is installed
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Determine Firefox versionIn Firefox, go to Help > About Firefox, or check the application binary. The version displays in the dialog that opens.Affected if Version is 4.0, 4.0.1, 5.0, 5.0.1, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 7.0, 8.0, 8.0.1, or 9.0
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Determine Thunderbird versionIn Thunderbird, go to Help > About Thunderbird, or check the application binary. The version displays in the dialog that opens.Affected if Version is 5.0, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 7.0, 8.0, 8.0.1, or 9.0
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Determine SeaMonkey versionIn SeaMonkey, go to Help > About SeaMonkey, or check the application binary. The version displays in the dialog that opens.Affected if Version is 1.0 through 2.7, specifically 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, 1.0.7, 1.0.8, 1.0.9, 1.1, or any 2.x version up to and including 2.7
The environment is affected if Firefox 4.0-9.0, Thunderbird 5.0-9.0, or SeaMonkey 1.0-2.7 is installed and the application processes ICO image files.
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 dataUpgrade affected Mozilla products to version 10.0 (Firefox), 10.0 (Thunderbird), or 2.7 (SeaMonkey) or later. Alternatively, avoid processing untrusted ICO images until patches can be applied.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-0447 — 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-2012-0447 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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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