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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2012-6094

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-12-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.5.4-1.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
cups (Common Unix Printing System) 'Listen localhost:631' option not honored correctly which could provide unauthorized access to the system

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 confidence

The CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) printing service did not correctly honor the 'Listen localhost:631' configuration directive. Instead of binding exclusively to the loopback interface (127.0.0.1), the service could bind to all network interfaces, exposing the CUPS admin interface to remote network access. This allowed unauthenticated remote attackers to potentially manage print jobs, access sensitive printer configuration, or leverage other CUPS functionalities.

MitigationConfigure CUPS to explicitly bind to 127.0.0.1 using 'Listen 127.0.0.1:631' in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf and restart the service, or deploy firewall rules to restrict access to port 631 to trusted local networks only.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0= 10.0
CupsApplication
Affected:< 1.5.4-1.1

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checks

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

  1. Verify CUPS is installed and running
    Check if the CUPS service is present: on Debian run 'dpkg -l | grep cups' or 'systemctl status cups'; on macOS check for /usr/sbin/cupsd
    Affected if CUPS is installed and running
  2. Determine installed CUPS version
    Run 'dpkg -l cups' on Debian or 'cups-config --version' to get the version number
    Affected if Version is Debian 8.0, 9.0, or 10.0, or Apple CUPS < 1.5.4-1.1
  3. Inspect cupsd.conf for Listen directives
    Read /etc/cups/cupsd.conf and look for any 'Listen' statements. Check if only 'Listen localhost:631' is used without an explicit 'Listen 127.0.0.1:631' directive
    Affected if The config contains 'Listen localhost:631' or similar without explicit binding to 127.0.0.1
  4. Verify actual network binding
    Run 'netstat -tlnp | grep 631' or 'ss -tlnp | grep 631' to see which addresses CUPS is actually listening on
    Affected if CUPS is listening on 0.0.0.0:631 or :::631 instead of only 127.0.0.1:631

The environment is affected if CUPS is installed with a vulnerable version and the cupsd.conf uses 'Listen localhost:631' without explicit 'Listen 127.0.0.1:631', resulting in CUPS binding to all network interfaces.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 1.5.4-1.1 or later
Fixed in 1.5.4-1.1
Interim mitigation

Configure CUPS to explicitly bind to 127.0.0.1 using 'Listen 127.0.0.1:631' in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf and restart the service, or deploy firewall rules to restrict access to port 631 to trusted local networks only.

Recommended fix High confidence

CUPS version 1.5.4-1.1 or later; for Debian: upgrade to Debian 8 (jessie), 9 (stretch), or 10 (buster) with their respective patched CUPS packages

  1. 1. Identify the CUPS package version currently installed (dpkg -l cups or rpm -q cups)
  2. 2. Update the package repository lists (apt-get update for Debian)
  3. 3. Upgrade CUPS to version 1.5.4-1.1 or later using the system package manager (apt-get install cups or apt-get upgrade cups)
  4. 4. After upgrading, verify the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf contains 'Listen localhost:631' or 'Listen 127.0.0.1:631' to ensure it only listens on localhost
  5. 5. Restart the CUPS service (systemctl restart cups)
  6. 6. Verify CUPS is only listening on localhost:631 (netstat -tlnp | grep 631 or ss -tlnp | grep 631)
Caveat Standard CUPS upgrade; review /etc/cups/cupsd.conf for any custom configuration changes before restarting

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
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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-2012-6094 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data