CVE-2012-5366
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 · uneditedThe IPv6 implementation in Apple Mac OS X (unknown versions, year 2012 and earlier) allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a flood of ICMPv6 Router Advertisement packets containing multiple Routing entries.
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 confidenceThe IPv6 implementation in Apple Mac OS X contains a denial of service vulnerability where processing a flood of specially crafted ICMPv6 Router Advertisement packets with multiple routing entries can cause system instability or crash.
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< 10.9CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 Mac OS X versionOpen Terminal and run 'sw_vers' or 'system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType' to view the installed OS versionAffected if The version displayed is earlier than 10.9 (such as 10.8.x, 10.7.x, etc.)
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Verify IPv6 is enabledOpen Terminal and run ' networksetup -listallnetworkservices' to see network services, then check IPv6 status with 'ip6config' or inspect System Preferences > Network > Advanced > TCP/IP for IPv6 configurationAffected if IPv6 is currently enabled on any active network interface
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Confirm ICMPv6 Router Advertisement processingRun 'sysctl net.inet6.icmp6.nd6_prune' to check if the system processes router advertisements, or use 'ip6sctl' to inspect ICMPv6 neighbor discovery settingsAffected if Router advertisement processing is enabled (the system will respond to or process ICMPv6 RA packets)
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Identify active network interfaces with IPv6Run 'ifconfig' or 'networksetup -listallnetworkservices' to list interfaces, then check each for IPv6 assignment with 'ip6config'Affected if Any active network interface has an IPv6 address assigned and is listening for Router Advertisements
A user is affected if their Mac OS X version is earlier than 10.9 AND IPv6 is enabled and actively processing ICMPv6 Router Advertisement packets on a network interface.
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 data10.9
Apply the relevant Apple security updates for the Mac OS X version in use, or upgrade to a supported OS version; alternatively, filter ICMPv6 Router Advertisement packets at the network edge using firewall or edge device rules.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-5366 — 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-2012-5366 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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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.
- 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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