# CVE-2012-4840: Code injection in n/a

> Remote attackers can execute arbitrary code via XPath injection in IBM Cognos Business Intelligence, requiring immediate patching.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not stated
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 Mar 2013
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w6p2-83wm-qwh2

## What is CVE-2012-4840?

CVE-2012-4840 is a medium-severity code injection vulnerability in n/a, published on 2 Mar 2013. It can be exploited over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) 8.4.1 before IF1, 10.1 before IF2, 10.1.1 before IF2, and 10.2 before IF1 allows remote attackers to conduct XPath injection attacks, and call XPath extension functions, via unspecified vectors.

Weakness: CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-4840?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Cognos Business Intelligence.

## How do I fix CVE-2012-4840?

No fix has been published for CVE-2012-4840 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2012-4840 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-4840 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2012-4858](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-4858/): Deserialization in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2016-8960](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8960/): Privilege escalation in Cognos Business Intelligence (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2016-3036](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-3036/): Memory corruption in Cognos TM1 (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-1764](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1764/): Information disclosure in Cognos Business Intelligence (high 7.0)
- [CVE-2016-0254](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-0254/): XML external entity in Cognos Business Intelligence (medium 6.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2012-4840 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2012-4840 is a medium-severity code injection vulnerability in n/a, published on 2 Mar 2013. It can be exploited over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-4840 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-4840/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-4840/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-4840
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-4840
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2012-4840

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-4840/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.