# CVE-2012-5613: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Authenticated users with FILE privilege can escalate privileges by creating files as administrator, requiring non-default configuration.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.0 (`AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Dec 2012
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cvqp-6rwh-x2fj

## What is CVE-2012-5613?

CVE-2012-5613 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mariadb Mariadb, published on 3 Dec 2012. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

MySQL 5.5.19 and possibly other versions, and MariaDB 5.5.28a and possibly other versions, when configured to assign the FILE privilege to users who should not have administrative privileges, allows remote authenticated users to gain privileges by leveraging the FILE privilege to create files as the MySQL administrator. NOTE: the vendor disputes this issue, stating that this is only a vulnerability when the administrator does not follow recommendations in the product's installation documentation. NOTE: it could be argued that this should not be included in CVE because it is a configuration issue.

Weakness: CWE-16

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2012-5613?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Mariadb Mariadb, Oracle Mysql.

## How do I fix CVE-2012-5613?

No fix has been published for CVE-2012-5613 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2012-5613 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2012-5613 exists.

Public exploit code:

- MySQL-Fu is a Ruby based MySQL Client Script I wrote.  It does most of the stuff a normal MySQL client might do: SQL Shell, Update/Delete/Drop Database/Table, Add/Delete Users, Dump Database(s)/Table w/ option for gzip...... Plus a few extra options  to make life a little easier for pentests. Includes Several builtin PHP Command Shell options as well as Pentestmonkey's PHP Reverse Shell, in addition to multiple options for file writing and reading (all files read logged locally for offline analysis later), also includes Ruby port of Kingcope's CVE-2012-5613 Linux MySQL Privilege Escalation Exploit. (github_poc): https://github.com/Hood3dRob1n/MySQL-Fu.rb
- Oracle MySQL for Microsoft Windows MOF Execution (metasploit)
- Oracle MySQL for Microsoft Windows FILE Privilege Abuse (metasploit)
- MySQL (Linux) - Database Privilege Escalation (exploitdb)
- Oracle MySQL (Windows) - MOF Execution (Metasploit) (exploitdb)
- Oracle MySQL (Windows) - FILE Privilege Abuse (Metasploit) (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Mariadb Mariadb

- [CVE-2026-49261](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-49261/): MariaDB server has unsafe parameter handling in `wsrep_notify_cmd` (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2026-85746](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-85746/): MariaDB: Out-of-bound buffer write on in `ST_AsText` of nested GeometryCollections (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2026-85748](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-85748/): MariaDB: Use-after-free with a large number of SYS_REFCURSOR's (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2026-92262](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-92262/): MariaDB: Numerous issues caused by historical #mysql50# tablename encoding bypass. (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2023-26785](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-26785/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2012-5613 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2012-5613 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mariadb Mariadb, published on 3 Dec 2012. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2012-5613 exists.

Affected product: Mariadb Mariadb. 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-2012-5613/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-5613/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-5613
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-5613
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2012-5613

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-5613/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.