CriticalCVE-2012-0507

    Oracle Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE) Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2012-0507)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    A vulnerability in Oracle's Java Runtime Environment (JRE) allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code. This affects Oracle Java SE versions 7 Update 2 and earlier, 6 Update 30 and earlier, and 5.0 Update 33 and earlier. The vulnerability is actively exploited in ransomware campaigns, highlighting the need for immediate action. All listed versions of the JRE are impacted. Organizations should promptly update to the latest version to mitigate this risk.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. CISA lists it as used in ransomware campaigns. The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Sun JRE 1.4.2 02 eq 1.5.0..1.5.0
    • Oracle JRE eq 1.6.0..1.6.0
    • Sun JRE 1.4.2 02 eq 1.6.0..1.6.0
    • Oracle JRE eq 1.7.0..1.7.0
    • Debian Linux eq 6.0..6.0
    • Debian Linux eq 7.0..7.0
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop eq 10..10
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Java eq 10..10
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Java eq 11..11
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server eq 10..10
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server eq 11..11
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit (SDK) eq 11..11

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    98.2 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.91

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    253.86 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    98.2 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.91
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 3 March 2022
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-843

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    The flaw is network-reachable without authentication or special conditions — simply browsing to a malicious page with the Java plug-in enabled yields a full sandbox escape and code execution as the logged-on user. It was a staple of drive-by exploit kits against Windows and macOS clients for years, sits among the CVEs most likely to be exploited, and CISA confirms its use in ransomware campaigns. In modern estates the risk concentrates in legacy pockets: OT/HMI workstations, old line-of-business apps, management consoles for ageing hardware, and forgotten terminal servers. Treat any unpatched JRE with browser or internet access as critical and remediate immediately; isolated hosts without the plug-in or web access can follow, but must be tracked and documented under your NIS2 vulnerability-management process.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory outdated JREs: Use your software-distribution or EDR inventory to find every host running Oracle Java SE 7 Update 2 or earlier, 6 Update 30 or earlier, or 5.0 Update 33 or earlier — all pre-dating the Oracle February 2012 Critical Patch Update (CPU). On Debian hosts, also check installed OpenJDK packages (dpkg -l | grep -i -E 'openjdk|jre').
      • Remove rather than patch where possible: Java 5 and 6 have been end-of-life for years. Uninstall affected JREs entirely and, only where a business application needs it, replace with a currently supported Java release. The fix ships in the February 2012 Oracle CPU; for Debian, apply the update from the relevant Debian Security Advisory (patch available from the vendor — look up the exact version in the advisory).
      • Kill the browser plug-in now: The Java browser plug-in (NPAPI/ActiveX) is the primary delivery path via malicious applets. Untick "Enable Java content in the browser" in the Java Control Panel, enforce via GPO/registry, and strip the plug-in from all browsers.
      • Contain suspicious clients: Network-isolate via EDR any host with a vulnerable JRE where java.exe/javaw.exe has recently spawned child processes or dropped executables to temp directories; preserve forensic evidence.
      • Rotate credentials on compromised hosts: Ransomware use is confirmed by CISA — reset domain and service-account credentials cached on affected machines and hunt for lateral movement.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network/proxy: Block internet downloads of .jar and .class files and the application/java-archive MIME type at the web proxy; allowlist only explicitly approved internal application servers.
      • Proxy version gate: Drop requests carrying outdated Java user agents (e.g. Java/1.6.0_, Java/1.5.0_, Java/1.7.0_0[0-2]) — this breaks the applet fetch chain even on clients not yet remediated.
      • IPS/WAF: Enable signatures for exploit-kit landing pages and applets abusing AtomicReferenceArray (search Suricata/Snort ET rulesets for "CVE-2012-0507"); malicious JARs typically contain serialized objects referencing java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReferenceArray.
      • Endpoint hardening: Use AppLocker/WDAC or ASR rules to stop java.exe/javaw.exe from launching shells (cmd.exe, powershell.exe, wscript.exe) or unsigned binaries from %TEMP%/%APPDATA%.
      • Configuration: Where Java is unavoidable for line-of-business apps, use Deployment Rule Sets or Exception Site Lists to restrict execution to signed internal applets; contain such apps on dedicated terminal-server or kiosk hosts.
      • IAM/least privilege: Run end users without local admin rights so the payload dropped after the sandbox escape cannot gain system-level persistence.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Sysmon EID 1 / Windows Event ID 4688 — process ancestry: ParentImage ends in java.exe or javaw.exe and Image is cmd.exe, powershell.exe, rundll32.exe, regsvr32.exe, or a binary under \AppData\ or \Temp\. KQL: DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("java.exe","javaw.exe") and FileName in~ ("cmd.exe","powershell.exe","rundll32.exe","regsvr32.exe")
      • Sysmon EID 11 — file creation: java.exe/javaw.exe writing .exe, .dll, or .scr files into user-profile paths; correlate with subsequent execution (EID 1) of the same file.
      • Proxy/Zeek HTTP logs: Sequence of "request with Java user agent → executable download (application/octet-stream, MZ header)" from the same client within seconds. SPL: index=proxy useragent="*Java/1.*" | stats values(uri) values(content_type) by src_ip
      • Suricata alerts: Hits on ET signatures for Java exploit kits or CVE-2012-0507, plus JAR downloads from newly registered or uncategorised domains.
      • Linux auditd/EDR (Debian): execve events whose parent is java launching /bin/sh, curl, or wget — especially on desktops running the IcedTea browser plug-in.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    Unspecified vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) component in Oracle Java SE 7 Update 2 and earlier, 6 Update 30 and earlier, and 5.0 Update 33 and earlier allows remote attackers to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability via unknown vectors related to Concurrency. NOTE: the previous information was obtained from the February 2012 Oracle CPU. Oracle has not commented on claims from a downstream vendor and third party researchers that this issue occurs because the AtomicReferenceArray class implementation does not ensure that the array is of the Object[] type, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service (JVM crash) or bypass Java sandbox restrictions. NOTE: this issue was originally mapped to CVE-2011-3571, but that identifier was already assigned to a different issue.

    Source: CISA KEV Catalog, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    oraclejre
    • 1.6.0
    • 1.7.0
    • —
    • —
    sunjre
    • 1.5.0
    • 1.6.0
    • —
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebiandebian_linux6.0
    Linuxdebiandebian_linux7.0
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_desktop10
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_java10
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_java11
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_server10
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_server11
    Linuxsuselinux_enterprise_software_development_kit11

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-843Access of Resource Using Incompatible Type ('Type Confusion')

      Base

      The product allocates or initializes a resource such as a pointer, object, or variable using one type, but it later accesses that resource using a type that is incompatible with the original type.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-843

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited

    References & sources

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