- 9.3CriticalCVSS base score
- 15.0%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 3.3% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 2Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
A malicious backdoor was embedded in the official ProFTPD 1.3.3c source tarball distributed between November 28 and December 2, 2010. The backdoor implements a hidden FTP command trigger that, when invoked, causes the server to execute arbitrary shell commands with root privileges. This allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to run any OS command on the FTP server host.
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 and a Nuclei template for it. 3 references of the record are tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits5
Metasploit modules1 module
- ProFTPD 1.3.3c Backdoor Command Execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/unix/ftp/proftpd_133c_backdoorRank excellentdisclosed 2 Dec 2010
Nuclei templates1 template
- ProFTPd-1.3.3c - Backdoor Command Execution (Nuclei template) (opens in a new tab)
javascript/cves/2010/CVE-2010-20103.yamlSeverity critical
References tagged exploit3 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
- 1 day later
· 1 day later
Published
- 11 months later
· 11 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 | Critical9.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 4.0 | Critical9.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/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)
- 15.0% · top 3.3% of all CVEs (10 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 9.3.
Affected products
ProFTPD Project · ProFTPD (Professional FTP Daemon)
- affected 1.3.3c
References
8
- https://web.archive.org/web/20111107212129/http://rsync.proftpd.org/ (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisorypatch
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/unix/ftp/proftpd_133c_backdoor.rb (opens in a new tab)exploit
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15662 (opens in a new tab)exploit
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/16921 (opens in a new tab)exploit
- https://advisories.checkpoint.com/defense/advisories/public/2011/cpai-2010-151.html/ (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisory
- https://github.com/proftpd/proftpd (opens in a new tab)product
- http://www.proftpd.org/ (opens in a new tab)product
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/proftpd-backdoor-command-execution (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-2010-5301 (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-2010-20103)Record last updated .