Threats / PHP / CVE-2012-1823
CVE-2012-1823
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
PHP vulnerability
PHP CGI mode improperly handles query strings, allowing remote code execution through specially crafted requests.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A query string handling flaw in PHP's CGI SAPI enables unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected servers. The vulnerability has been actively exploited in the wild and carries high severity due to its ease of exploitation and direct code execution impact.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-03-254EPSS 0.99998 (verify live)5Exploit Weaponized · public PoC6CVSS 9.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
16 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-25).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.99998 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: PHP, PHP. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-20 Improper Input Validation.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 3605 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module, nuclei template. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious query string targeting a PHP CGI endpoint to bypass input validation.
Business
Web application becomes compromised, exposing customer data and internal systems to unauthorized access.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I execute arbitrary PHP code on the server through the unvalidated query string parameter.
Business
Attackers gain persistent foothold, enabling data theft, service disruption, and lateral movement within infrastructure.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I establish command execution capabilities to deploy malware or establish reverse shells.
Business
Organization faces operational downtime, forensic costs, regulatory penalties, and reputational damage from security breach.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05