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McryptApplication

CVE-2012-4426

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2012-11-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.6.8 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Multiple format string vulnerabilities in mcrypt 2.6.8 and earlier might allow user-assisted remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via vectors involving (1) errors.c or (2) mcrypt.c.

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

Multiple format string vulnerabilities exist in mcrypt versions 2.6.8 and earlier within the errors.c and mcrypt.c source files. These occur when user-controlled input is passed directly to format string functions (such as printf, fprintf, sprintf) without proper format specifiers. An attacker who can provide malicious input to mcrypt (requiring user-assisted interaction) could crash the application or potentially achieve arbitrary code execution by writing to arbitrary memory addresses via format string specifiers like %n.

MitigationUpgrade mcrypt to a version newer than 2.6.8 which contains the patched code. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict access to mcrypt utilities and validate all user inputs before passing them to format string functions.

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
McryptApplication
Affected:<= 2.6.8= 2.6.4= 2.6.5= 2.6.6= 2.6.7

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
Network
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/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 checks

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

  1. Check if mcrypt is installed
    Run `which mcrypt` or look for the mcrypt binary in system paths such as /usr/bin/mcrypt
    Affected if the mcrypt binary exists on the system
  2. Determine the installed mcrypt version
    Run `mcrypt --version` to display the version number, or query the package manager (dpkg -l mcrypt, rpm -qi mcrypt, or apk list installed mcrypt)
    Affected if the version displayed is 2.6.8 or any of the earlier affected versions (2.6.4, 2.6.5, 2.6.6, or 2.6.7)

If mcrypt is present and its version is 2.6.8 or earlier, the environment is affected by CVE-2012-4426.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.6.8
Interim mitigation

Upgrade mcrypt to a version newer than 2.6.8 which contains the patched code. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict access to mcrypt utilities and validate all user inputs before passing them to format string functions.

Fix this in Mcrypt Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,820
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,512.

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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-2012-4426 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