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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2012-0843

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-11-19
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

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 · unedited
uzbl: Information disclosure via world-readable cookies storage file

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 confidence

uzbl browser stores cookies in a file with world-readable permissions (e.g., 0644), allowing any local user on the system to read sensitive cookie data including session tokens and authentication credentials.

MitigationFix the cookie storage file permissions to restrict access to only the owner user (e.g., chmod 600) and ensure any new cookie files are created with restrictive permissions.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0
UzblApplication
Affected:all versions

CVSS 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
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if uzbl browser is installed
    Run 'which uzbl' or check your package manager for the uzbl package
    Affected if The uzbl browser is present on the system
  2. Locate the cookie storage file
    Search for files named 'cookies' or 'cookie' in the uzbl configuration directory (typically ~/.uzbl/ or similar user directories)
    Affected if A cookie storage file exists in the uzbl user directory
  3. Inspect file permissions on the cookie file
    Run 'ls -la' on the cookie file path found in the previous step and check the permission bits
    Affected if The file permissions show world-readability (e.g., 0644, 0640 with group read, or any permission containing 'r--r--r--' pattern)
  4. Verify other potential cookie files
    Check for any additional cookie-related files in uzbl directories that may have been created over time
    Affected if Any cookie file under uzbl directories has permissive (world-readable) permissions

A user is affected if uzbl browser is installed and any cookie storage file in its user directory has permissions that allow reading by other users on the system (e.g., permissions ending in 4 or showing 'r--' for others).

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Fix the cookie storage file permissions to restrict access to only the owner user (e.g., chmod 600) and ensure any new cookie files are created with restrictive permissions.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing0.5 h
  • Review / QA0.5 h
3.0 hours of engineering $750
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-0843 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data