MSCOMCTL.OCX ActiveX Controls Remote Code Execution
CVE-2012-0158 is a remote code execution vulnerability in the MSCOMCTL.OCX Common Controls ActiveX library used by multiple Microsoft products, including Microsoft Office. The flaw affects the ListView, ListView2, TreeView, and TreeView2 ActiveX controls. According to the provided content, a crafted web page, Office document, or RTF file can trigger corruption of the control's internal system state, leading to memory corruption and arbitrary code execution. In practice, the vulnerability was widely weaponized in malicious Word and RTF documents delivered via spear-phishing, often to drop and execute embedded payloads. The issue was exploited in the wild beginning in 2012 and remained heavily used by multiple threat actors for years afterward against unpatched systems.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
45 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A Microsoft Office ActiveX control vulnerability used as a long-running initial access vector in spear-phishing to execute code and deploy Lotus Blossom implants (Emissary explicitly referenced).
A Windows Common Controls remote code execution vulnerability listed among top exploited CVEs.
A well-known vulnerability used in document-based exploit lures in espionage campaigns targeting Tibetan groups.
A remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office that can be exploited via crafted Office documents, typically delivered through phishing emails.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.