CVE-2012-4551
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 · uneditedUse-after-free vulnerability in libunity-webapps before 2.4.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted web site, related to "certain hash tables."
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 · moderate confidenceUse-after-free vulnerability in libunity-webapps versions before 2.4.1 allows remote attackers to cause memory corruption and potentially execute arbitrary code via crafted websites. The vulnerability stems from improper handling in certain hash table operations, leading to freed memory being accessed.
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<= 2.4.0= 0.02= 0.2.1= 0.3= 0.3.1= 2.0= 2.0.1= 2.1= 2.3= 2.3.1= 2.3.2= 2.3.3CVSS 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
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed libunity-webapps versionRun package manager query to retrieve the installed version of libunity-webapps (e.g., dpkg -l libunity-webapps, rpm -qa libunity-webapps, or apt show libunity-webapps)Affected if The installed version is 2.4.0 or earlier, or matches any of these specific versions: 0.02, 0.2.1, 0.3, 0.3.1, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.1, 2.3, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3
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Confirm the package name matches the affected productVerify the exact package name is 'libunity-webapps' from the Ps Project Management Team, as other similarly named packages may existAffected if The package name and vendor match the affected product listing
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Determine if Unity WebApps feature is enabledCheck if webapps integration is active in the desktop environment (look for Unity webapps configuration in user settings or system-wide apports configuration)Affected if Unity webapps feature is installed and active, making the library loadable by web-enabled applications
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Identify applications that load libunity-webappsSearch running processes or recently used applications that leverage Unity webapps integration (such as browsers with webapp extensions)Affected if Applications with webapp integration are in use and can trigger the vulnerable hash table operations when processing web content
The environment is affected if libunity-webapps version 2.4.0 or earlier is installed and the Unity webapps feature is enabled, allowing web content to trigger the use-after-free in hash table operations.
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 libunity-webapps to version 2.4.1 or later to eliminate the use-after-free condition.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-4551 — 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-2012-4551 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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