CVE-2012-0656
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 · uneditedRace condition in LoginUIFramework in Apple Mac OS X 10.7.x before 10.7.4, when the Guest account is enabled, allows physically proximate attackers to login to arbitrary accounts by entering the account name and no password.
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 · moderate confidenceA race condition exists in the LoginUIFramework of Apple Mac OS X 10.7.x prior to version 10.7.4. When the Guest account is enabled, an attacker with physical access can exploit a timing window during the login process to bypass authentication and gain access to arbitrary user accounts by entering only the account name with no password.
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= 10.7.0= 10.7.1= 10.7.2= 10.7.3CVSS 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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Check Mac OS X versionRun 'sw_vers -productVersion' in Terminal or open Apple menu > About This MacAffected if The version is 10.7.0, 10.7.1, 10.7.2, or 10.7.3 (versions prior to 10.7.4)
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Check if Guest account is enabledRun 'dscl . -read /Users/Guest AuthenticationAuthority' in Terminal, or open System Preferences > Accounts and look for the Guest userAffected if The Guest account shows an AuthenticationAuthority value containing 'Kernel' or is listed as enabled in System Preferences > Accounts
A user is affected if they are running Mac OS X 10.7.0 through 10.7.3 AND have the Guest account enabled, allowing physical attackers to exploit the race condition during login.
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 dataUpdate Mac OS X to version 10.7.4 or later to obtain the vendor patch. Alternatively, disable the Guest account in System Preferences > Accounts as a workaround until the update can be applied.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-0656 — 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-2012-0656 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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