CVE-2012-5623
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NVD · uneditedSquirrelmail 4.0 uses the outdated MD5 hash algorithm for passwords.
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 confidenceSquirrelMail 4.0 stores user passwords using MD5 hashing, a cryptographically weak algorithm vulnerable to collision attacks and efficient brute-force recovery. This allows attackers who obtain the password database to compromise user credentials.
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= 4.0CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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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Identify the installed Change Passwd plugin versionLocate the change_passwd plugin directory (typically at plugins/change_passwd/ in SquirrelMail) and check the version defined in the plugin's setup.php or version fileAffected if The version is exactly 4.0
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Inspect the password hashing implementationExamine the change_passwd plugin's PHP files, particularly the function that handles password storage or encryption, and look for use of the MD5() function for password hashingAffected if The code explicitly uses MD5() to hash user passwords
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Verify the password storage formatCheck the user password database or configuration file where passwords are stored - if the stored values appear as 32-character hexadecimal strings typical of MD5, this indicates MD5 hashing is in useAffected if Stored passwords are in raw MD5 format (32-char hex) with no salt visible in the hash structure
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Check for password saltingReview the password generation/storage code in the Change Passwd plugin to determine whether each password is combined with a unique random salt before hashingAffected if No per-user salt is applied before MD5 hashing, making the hashes vulnerable to rainbow table attacks
A system is affected if the SquirrelMail Change Passwd plugin version is exactly 4.0 and uses MD5 hashing without proper per-user salting for password storage.
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 SquirrelMail to a version employing modern password hashing (bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2) and migrate existing password hashes to the new algorithm with proper salting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-5623 — 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-2012-5623 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data