CVE-2012-3724
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 · uneditedCFNetwork in Apple iOS before 6 does not properly identify the host portion of a URL, which allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information by leveraging the construction of an HTTP request with an incorrect hostname derived from a malformed URL.
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 confidenceCFNetwork in Apple iOS before 6 contains a URL parsing flaw where the host portion of a URL is not properly identified when processing malformed URLs. This allows remote attackers to manipulate HTTP requests to send sensitive data to incorrect hosts derived from the malformed URL structure.
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<= 5.1.1= 1.0.0= 1.0.1= 1.0.2= 1.1.0= 1.1.1= 1.1.2= 1.1.3= 1.1.4= 1.1.5= 2.0= 2.0.0CVSS 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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Check the iOS version installed on the deviceGo to Settings > General > About on the iOS device and look at the 'Version' field, or use the command 'sw_vers' via SSH/Terminal if availableAffected if The version number is less than 6.0 (for example, 5.1.1, 5.0.1, 4.3.x, etc.)
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Confirm CFNetwork is in useCFNetwork is a core networking framework in iOS and is automatically used by any application that makes HTTP/HTTPS connections (via NSURLConnection, NSURLSession, or similar APIs). No additional configuration check is needed.Affected if Any application on the device makes network requests using Apple's URL loading system - this is the default behavior for most iOS apps
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Identify if vulnerable URL handling is possibleThe vulnerability occurs when parsing malformed URLs where the host portion is ambiguous. This is an internal CFNetwork behavior triggered when an app processes a specially crafted URL.Affected if The device runs an iOS version prior to 6.0 and processes any URL from untrusted sources (which includes most network activity in Safari, apps, or any network-enabled application)
The device is affected if it is running any version of iOS prior to 6.0, as the vulnerable CFNetwork version is present in all earlier iOS releases.
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 iOS devices to iOS 6 or later to obtain the patched CFNetwork version.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-3724 — 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-2012-3724 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
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