CVE-2012-0036
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction...
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction of a pathname from a URL, which allows remote attackers to conduct data-injection attacks via a crafted URL, as demonstrated by a CRLF injection attack on the (1) IMAP, (2) POP3, or (3) SMTP protocol.
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
7.5
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction of a pathname from a URL, which allows remote attackers to conduct data-injection attacks via a crafted URL, as demonstrated by a CRLF injection attack on the (1) IMAP, (2) POP3, or (3) SMTP protocol.
- Record
CVE-2012-0036- CVSS 2.0
- 7.5 High
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-89
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction of a pathname from a URL, which allows remote attackers to conduct data-injection attacks via a crafted URL, as demonstrated by a CRLF injection attack on the (1) IMAP, (2) POP3, or (3) SMTP protocol.
- Record
CVE-2012-0036- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2012-0076 No score
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction of a pathname from a URL, which allows remote attackers to conduct data-injection attacks via a crafted URL, as demonstrated by a CRLF injection attack on the (1) IMAP, (2) POP3, or (3) SMTP protocol.
- Record
EUVD-2012-0076- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-xxw5-p895-cp2c No score
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction...
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction of a pathname from a URL, which allows remote attackers to conduct data-injection attacks via a crafted URL, as demonstrated by a CRLF injection attack on the (1) IMAP, (2) POP3, or (3) SMTP protocol.
- Record
GHSA-xxw5-p895-cp2c- Weakness
- CWE-89
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVCURL-CVE-2012-0036 No score
URL sanitization vulnerability
curl is vulnerable to a data injection attack for certain protocols through control characters embedded or percent-encoded in URLs.
When parsing URLs, libcurl's parser is liberal and only parses as little as possible and lets as much as possible through as long as it can figure out what to do.
In the specific process when libcurl extracts the file path part from a given URL, it did not always verify the data or escape control characters properly before it passed the file path on to the protocol-specific code that then would use it for its protocol business.
This passing through of control characters could be exploited by someone who would be able to pass in a handcrafted URL to libcurl. Lots of libcurl using applications let users enter URLs in one form or another and not all of these check the input carefully to prevent malicious ones.
A malicious user might pass in %0d%0a to get treated as CR LF by libcurl, and by using this fact a user can trick for example a POP3 client to delete a message instead of getting it or trick an SMTP server to send an unintended message.
This vulnerability can be used to fool libcurl with the following protocols: IMAP, POP3 and SMTP.
Both curl the command line tool and applications using the libcurl library are vulnerable.
- Record
CURL-CVE-2012-0036- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV No score
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction of a pathname from a URL, which allows remote attackers to conduct data-injection attacks via a crafted URL, as demonstrated by a CRLF injection attack on the (1) IMAP, (2) POP3, or (3) SMTP protocol.
- Record
CVE-2012-0036- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2012-0036 No score
curl and libcurl 7.2x before 7.24.0 do not properly consider special characters during extraction of a pathname from a URL, which allows remote attackers to conduct data-injection attacks via a crafted URL, as demonstrated by a CRLF injection attack on the (1) IMAP, (2) POP3, or (3) SMTP protocol.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2012-0036- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
curlDebian:12 |
before 7.24.0-1 | 7.24.0-1 |
curlDebian:13 |
before 7.24.0-1 | 7.24.0-1 |
curlDebian:14 |
before 7.24.0-1 | 7.24.0-1 |
curlDebian:5.0 From an advisory covering 2 CVEs |
before 7.18.2-8lenny6, plus listed versions 7.18.2-87.18.2-8lenny27.18.2-8lenny37.18.2-8lenny47.18.2-8lenny5 |
7.18.2-8lenny6 |
curlDebian:6.0 From an advisory covering 2 CVEs |
before 7.21.0-2.1+squeeze1, plus listed versions 7.21.0-17.21.0-2 |
7.21.0-2.1+squeeze1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| affected, facts | ||
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2012-0036 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.5) in Curl, published January 24, 2012. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 16.1%, the 96th percentile. Fixed in curl 7.24.0-1.
References
oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/cpujul2015-2367936.html
h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c03360041
h20566.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-hpesbhf03760en_us
securitytracker.com/id/1032924
debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2398
security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201203-02.xml
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securityfocus.com/bid/51665
secunia.com/advisories/48256
curl.haxx.se/docs/adv_20120124.html
curl.haxx.se/curl-url-sanitize.patch
mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2012:058
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=773457
support.apple.com/kb/HT5281
github.com/bagder/curl/commit/75ca568fa1c19de4c5358fed246686de8467c238
lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2012/May/msg00001.html
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-0036
github.com/advisories/GHSA-xxw5-p895-cp2c
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2012-0036