CVE-2012-4792: Microsoft Internet Explorer Use-After-Free Vulnerability

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2024-07-23
EPSS: 78.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2012-12-30 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

Use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 through 8 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted web site that triggers access to an object that (1) was not properly allocated or (2) is deleted, as demonstrated by a CDwnBindInfo object, and exploited in the wild in December 2012.

Affected products

Microsoft Internet Explorer 11: 6, 7, 8

References

http://blog.fireeye.com/research/2012/12/council-foreign-relations-water-hole-attack-details.html
http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2012/12/29/new-vulnerability-affecting-internet-explorer-8-users.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2012/12/31/microsoft-quot-fix-it-quot-available-for-internet-explorer-6-7-and-8.aspx
http://eromang.zataz.com/2012/12/29/attack-and-ie-0day-informations-used-against-council-on-foreign-relations/
http://labs.alienvault.com/labs/index.php/2012/just-another-water-hole-campaign-using-an-internet-explorer-0day/
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/119168/Microsoft-Internet-Explorer-CDwnBindInfo-Object-Use-After-Free.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/security/advisory/2794220
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/154201
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA13-008A.html
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA13-015A.html
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2013/ms13-008
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/windows/browser/ie_cbutton_uaf.rb

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