CVE-2012-6532
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, (3) Zend_Soap, and (4) Zend_XmlRpc in Zend Framework 1.x before 1.11.13 and 1.12.x before 1.12.0 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via recursive or circular references in an XML entity definition in an XML DOCTYPE declaration, aka an XML Entity Expansion (XEE) attack.
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 confidenceZend Framework 1.x components (Zend_Dom, Zend_Feed, Zend_Soap, Zend_XmlRpc) fail to restrict XML entity expansion, allowing remote attackers to inject recursive or circular entity definitions in XML DOCTYPE declarations. This causes the XML parser to consume excessive CPU resources via the Billion Laughs/Entity Expansion attack, resulting in denial of service.
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= 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= 1.7.3CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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 Zend Framework versionLocate the Zend Framework library in your application and determine the installed version number (typically found in Zend/Version.php or a version-specific file)Affected if The installed version matches any of these exact versions: 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
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Determine if vulnerable components are usedSearch your codebase for imports or includes of Zend_Dom, Zend_Feed, Zend_Soap, or Zend_XmlRpc classesAffected if Any of these components (Zend_Dom, Zend_Feed, Zend_Soap, Zend_XmlRpc) are loaded or used by your application
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Check for XML input processingIdentify code paths where your application parses XML input from external sources (user uploads, API requests, feed imports, SOAP calls, XML-RPC requests)Affected if Your application processes XML input using any of the vulnerable Zend components
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Verify XML parser configurationCheck your PHP configuration for libxml settings, specifically whether external entity loading is restricted. Inspect the PHP XML parser settings or check if libxml_disable_entity_loader() is called with true before XML parsingAffected if External entity processing is not explicitly disabled in the XML parser configuration when using the affected components
You are affected if you run any of the listed Zend Framework versions AND use Zend_Dom, Zend_Feed, Zend_Soap, or Zend_XmlRpc to process untrusted XML input without external entity expansion disabled.
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 Zend Framework to version 1.11.13 or 1.12.0+ which contains patches to limit entity expansion. Alternatively, disable external entity processing in the underlying XML parser or implement parser resource limits.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,544.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-6532 — 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-2012-6532 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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