CVE-2012-4064
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 · uneditedEucalyptus before 3.1.1 does not properly restrict the binding of external SOAP web-services messages, which allows remote authenticated users to gain privileges by sending a message to (1) Cloud Controller or (2) Walrus with the internal message format and a modified user id.
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 confidenceEucalyptus before 3.1.1 fails to properly restrict the binding of external SOAP web-services messages to internal channels. The SOAP interface does not validate that messages claiming to use the internal message format actually originate from internal system components. A remote authenticated attacker can send a specially crafted SOAP message to the Cloud Controller or Walrus using the internal message format but with a modified user ID, allowing privilege escalation to gain elevated access.
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<= 3.1.0= 1.0= 1.1= 1.2= 1.3= 1.4= 1.5.1= 1.5.2= 1.6= 1.6.2= 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
- Single
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
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 if Eucalyptus is installedLook for Eucalyptus packages using the system package manager (rpm -qa | grep eucalyptus or dpkg -l | grep eucalyptus) or check for Eucalyptus installation directories (/usr/lib/eucalyptus, /etc/eucalyptus)Affected if Eucalyptus software is present on the system
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Determine the installed Eucalyptus versionRun 'eucalyptus-version' command if available, or check /usr/lib/eucalyptus/etc/eucalyptus-version, or query the package manager (rpm -qi eucalyptus-*:1* or dpkg -s eucalyptus)Affected if The installed version matches one of the affected versions: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5.1, 1.5.2, 1.6, 1.6.2, 2.0, 2.0.0, or any version 3.1.0 or earlier
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Verify the Cloud Controller SOAP service is runningCheck if the Cloud Controller service is active (service eucalyptus-cc status or systemctl status eucalyptus-cc) and verify the SOAP port 8773 is listening (netstat -tlnp | grep 8773 or ss -tlnp | grep 8773)Affected if The Cloud Controller SOAP interface is running and listening on network ports
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Check network accessibility of SOAP endpointsVerify if the Cloud Controller SOAP port (8773) and Walrus SOAP port (8774) are exposed to non-localhost addresses (netstat -tlnp or ss -tlnp showing 0.0.0.0:8773 or :::8773)Affected if The SOAP endpoints are bound to non-localhost addresses and accessible from the network
If Eucalyptus is installed with an affected version (1.x, 2.x, or <=3.1.0) and the SOAP interface is network-accessible, the system is potentially vulnerable to CVE-2012-4064 privilege escalation attacks.
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 to Eucalyptus version 3.1.1 or later which implements proper validation of internal message origins. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict network access to SOAP endpoints and monitor for anomalous internal-format messages.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-4064 — 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-2012-4064 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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