Actively exploited · Published Jul 10, 2012 · Assigned by microsoft
CVE-2012-1854
High 7.8 Exploited
In plain English
A high-severity security flaw in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) from Microsoft. Attackers are actively exploiting it in the wild (listed by CISA on April 13, 2026). The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 20.9% (higher than 98% of all known vulnerabilities). Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
CISA guidance
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Federal agencies must remediate by Apr 27, 2026.
Official description
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.
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-426 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- TA12-192A third-party-advisory, x_refsource_CERT
- oval:org.mitre.oval:def:14950 vdb-entry, signature, x_refsource_OVAL
- MS12-046 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_MS
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/SecurityBulletins/2012/ms12-046 vendor-advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2012-1854 government-resource