CVE-2012-1854
Untrusted search path vulnerability in VBE6.dll in Microsoft Office 2003 SP3, 2007 SP2 and SP3, and 2010 Gold and SP1; Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA); and Summit Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications SDK allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in the current working directory, as demonstrated by a directory that contains a .docx file, aka "Visual Basic for Applications Insecure Library Loading Vulnerability," as exploited in the wild in July 2012.
do firstApply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Can a WAF block it? No. The attack needs local access to the machine, so a WAF is not on its path.
Also consider: patch
Based on the attack vector (local or physical access). We check Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud Armor and Azure; for Akamai, Imperva, Fastly, F5, ask your vendor.
Is CVE-2012-1854 being exploited?
Yes. CVE-2012-1854 appears in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed and reported. Treat it as active rather than theoretical, and patch it ahead of higher-scoring vulnerabilities that carry no exploitation evidence.
How severe is CVE-2012-1854?
CVE-2012-1854 is rated High with a CVSS score of 7.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2012-1854?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2012-1854. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2012-1854 affect?
CVE-2012-1854 affects microsoft:office, microsoft:visual_basic_for_applications, microsoft:visual_basic_for_applications_sdk. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
cisa ssvc
- exploitation
- active
- automatable
- no
- technical impact
- total
Assessed by CISA 13 Apr 2026 (SSVC 2.0.3).
timeline
- 10 Jul 2012Published
- 13 Apr 2026Added to CISA KEV (exploited in the wild) · 5,024 days (about 14 years) later
- 13 Apr 2026CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation active · same day later
- 14 Apr 2026CVE record last updated · 1 day later
- 27 Apr 2026CISA remediation due date (US federal agencies) · 13 days later
- 2 Nov 2026Analysed by vulneraibility.com · 190 days (about 6 months) later
- Advisoryus-cert.gov /cas/techalerts/TA12-192A.html
- Advisorydocs.microsoft.com /en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2012/ms12-046
- Advisorylearn.microsoft.com /en-us/security-updates/SecurityBulletins/2012/ms12-046
- Linkoval.cisecurity.org /repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A14950
- Linkcisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2012-1854
sources
- CVE List (CVE.org): description, affected versions, references; CVE Terms of Use
- NVD: CVSS and CPE data
- CISA KEV catalog: exploitation, date added, due date
- CISA Vulnrichment (ADP): SSVC decision points
- FIRST EPSS: exploit probability and percentile
- Summary, impact and triage tags: written by our AI analysis pipeline from the sources above. Check them against the sources.