What is CVE-2012-1854?
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.
The record classifies CVE-2012-1854 under weakness class CWE-426. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw requires local access to the host, needs no prior authentication, needs a user to take an action first, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 3 affected-product entries are recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 5226 days ago.
Severity and exploitation probability
- CVSS v3.1 base score
- 7.8 — HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - EPSS (FIRST)
- 21.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 97.5% of all scored CVEs
- CISA KEV
- Listed since 2026-04-13, federal remediation deadline 2026-04-27
- Threadlinqs priority
- 9/10 — CISA KEV-listed, which Threadlinqs floors at 9
- Published
- 2012-07-10, last modified 2026-04-14
Is CVE-2012-1854 being exploited?
CISA added CVE-2012-1854 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-04-13, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2026-04-27 under BOD 22-01. It currently carries a trending score of 39 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.
Affected products and versions
- (vendor unspecified): microsoft:visual_basic_for_applications, microsoft:office, microsoft:visual_basic_for_applications_sdk
How to fix CVE-2012-1854
Because CVE-2012-1854 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2026-04-27. No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2012-1854 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.
Threat activity tracking CVE-2012-1854
1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2012-1854, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.
Sources
Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS, CISA KEV. Last verified by Threadlinqs on .