# CVE-2012-5533: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service in lighttpd via an infinite loop triggered by a malformed HTTP header.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 Nov 2012
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2012-5533, GHSA-v87j-h4pq-fh3j

## What is CVE-2012-5533?

CVE-2012-5533 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 24 Nov 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The http_request_split_value function in request.c in lighttpd before 1.4.32 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via a request with a header containing an empty token, as demonstrated using the "Connection: TE,,Keep-Alive" header.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-5533?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Lighttpd Lighttpd.

## How do I fix CVE-2012-5533?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2012-5533 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-5533 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- lighttpd 1.4.31 - Denial of Service (PoC) (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2019-11072](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11072/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2007-3949](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-3949/): Security feature bypass in n/a (high 8.3)
- [CVE-2007-1870](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-1870/): Null dereference in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2022-30780](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-30780/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-12642](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-12642/): HTTP Header Smuggling via Trailer Merge (medium 6.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2012-5533 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2012-5533 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 24 Nov 2012. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2012-5533 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-2012-5533/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-5533/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-5533
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-5533
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2012-5533

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-5533/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.