CVE-2009-20011ContentKeeper Web Appliance < 125.10 RCE via mimencode
- 10.0CriticalCVSS base score
- 1.9%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 20% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
ContentKeeper Web Appliance (now maintained by Impero Software) versions prior to 125.10 are vulnerable to remote command execution due to insecure handling of file uploads via the mimencode CGI utility. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to upload and execute arbitrary scripts as the Apache user. Additionally, the exploit can optionally escalate privileges by abusing insecure PATH usage in the benetool binary, resulting in root-level access if successful.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module for it. 2 references of the record are tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits3
Metasploit modules1 module
- ContentKeeper Web Remote Command Execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/unix/http/contentkeeperweb_mimencodeRank excellentdisclosed 25 Feb 2009
References tagged exploit2 references
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By VulnCheck
- 2 days later
· 2 days later
Published
- 9 months later
· 9 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| VulnCheckCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 4.0 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 1.9% · top 20% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 10.0.
Affected products
ContentKeeper Technologies · ContentKeeper Web Appliance
- affected < 125.10
References
References5
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/unix/http/contentkeeperweb_mimencode.rb (opens in a new tab)exploit
- http://www.aushack.com/200904-contentkeeper.txt (opens in a new tab)exploit
- https://www.ativion.com/contentkeeper/ (opens in a new tab)productpatch
- https://web.archive.org/web/20081220084819/http://www.contentkeeper.com/ (opens in a new tab)product
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/contentkeeper-web-appliance-rce-via-mimencode (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisory
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2009-5121 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2009-20011)Record last updated .