CVE-2012-2993
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 · uneditedMicrosoft Windows Phone 7 does not verify the domain name in the subject's Common Name (CN) field of an X.509 certificate, which allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof an SSL server for the (1) POP3, (2) IMAP, or (3) SMTP protocol via an arbitrary valid certificate.
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 confidenceWindows Phone 7 fails to validate the domain name in the Subject Common Name (CN) field of X.509 certificates when establishing SSL/TLS connections. This allows man-in-the-middle attackers to intercept traffic by presenting any valid certificate, spoofing legitimate SSL servers for POP3, IMAP, and SMTP email protocols.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the operating systemCheck the device settings or system information to confirm the OS is Windows Phone 7. Navigate to Settings > About on the device to view the OS version.Affected if The device is running any version of Windows Phone 7 firmware.
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Confirm the firmware versionVerify the firmware version in the device settings under About > More Info. All Windows Phone 7 firmware versions are affected by this vulnerability.Affected if The firmware shows as any Windows Phone 7 version.
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Determine email configurationCheck the email account settings on the device. Navigate to Settings > Email + Accounts and examine each configured email account for SSL/TLS settings for POP3, IMAP, or SMTP connections.Affected if The device has email accounts configured using SSL/TLS for POP3, IMAP, or SMTP protocols.
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Test SSL certificate validationUse a network capture tool or a test server with a certificate for a different domain to observe whether the device accepts it. Attempt to connect using a certificate with a mismatched CN to see if the device rejects it.Affected if The device accepts SSL certificates where the CN does not match the connected domain name, indicating the validation flaw is present.
The user is affected if the device runs Windows Phone 7 and has email accounts configured using SSL/TLS for POP3, IMAP, or SMTP protocols, since the certificate CN validation is not performed.
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 dataWindows Phone 7 is discontinued and no longer receives security updates; users should migrate to supported platforms. Organizations should enforce VPN usage on untrusted networks as a workaround until migration is complete.
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-2993 — 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-2012-2993 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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