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Zend FrameworkApplication · Zend

CVE-2012-6531

MEDIUM · 6.4 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-02-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
(1) Zend_Dom, (2) Zend_Feed, and (3) Zend_Soap in Zend Framework 1.x before 1.11.13 and 1.12.x before 1.12.0 do not properly handle SimpleXMLElement classes, which allow remote attackers to read arbitrary files or create TCP connections via an external entity reference in a DOCTYPE element in an XML-RPC request, aka an XML external entity (XXE) injection attack, a different vulnerability than CVE-2012-3363.

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

This is an XML External Entity (XXE) injection vulnerability in Zend Framework's XML processing components (Zend_Dom, Zend_Feed, and Zend_Soap). These components fail to properly disable external entity processing when handling SimpleXMLElement classes, allowing attackers to inject malicious DOCTYPE elements with external entity references in XML-RPC requests to read arbitrary files from the server or establish outbound TCP connections to internal infrastructure.

MitigationDisable external entity processing in XML parsers by configuring libxml disabled entity loading, or upgrade to Zend Framework 1.11.13+/1.12.0+ which includes proper XXE protections.

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
Zend FrameworkApplication
Affected:= 1.0.4= 1.5.0= 1.5.1= 1.5.2= 1.5.3= 1.6.0= 1.6.1= 1.6.2= 1.7.0= 1.7.1= 1.7.2= 1.7.3

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
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
None

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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 checks

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

  1. Identify Zend Framework version
    Locate the Zend Framework library in your application (commonly in library/Zend or vendor/Zend) and check the Version.php file, or run 'grep -r "VERSION" library/Zend/Version.php' to find the version string
    Affected if The installed version matches 1.0.4, 1.5.0, 1.5.1, 1.5.2, 1.5.3, 1.6.0, 1.6.1, 1.6.2, 1.7.0, 1.7.1, 1.7.2, or 1.7.3
  2. Check for Zend_Dom usage
    Search your codebase for 'Zend_Dom' or 'new Zend_Dom_Query' imports and usage patterns
    Affected if Zend_Dom is used to parse XML or HTML from untrusted sources
  3. Check for Zend_Feed usage
    Search your codebase for 'Zend_Feed' imports and XML/Atom/RSS feed parsing, particularly where user-supplied XML is passed to Zend_Feed classes
    Affected if Zend_Feed is used to parse XML from untrusted sources
  4. Check for Zend_Soap usage
    Search your codebase for 'Zend_Soap_Server' or 'Zend_Soap_Client' implementations that handle XML-RPC requests
    Affected if Zend_Soap handles XML-RPC requests without additional entity protection
  5. Inspect XML input handling
    Review code paths where SimpleXMLElement is instantiated or XML is parsed, particularly in SOAP/RPC handlers, and verify if libxml disable entity loading is configured
    Affected if XML from external sources is processed without libxml disable entity loading being set
  6. Audit XML-RPC endpoints
    Identify any XML-RPC service endpoints in your application and verify they use Zend_Soap or similar XML processing without XXE protection
    Affected if Unprotected XML-RPC endpoints accept external XML input

Your environment is affected if you run Zend Framework versions 1.0.4 through 1.7.3 and use Zend_Dom, Zend_Feed, or Zend_Soap to process XML from untrusted sources without additional XXE protection.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Disable external entity processing in XML parsers by configuring libxml disabled entity loading, or upgrade to Zend Framework 1.11.13+/1.12.0+ which includes proper XXE protections.

Fix this in Zend Framework Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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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-2012-6531 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
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