CVE-2018-19518
University of Washington IMAP Toolkit 2007f on UNIX, as used in imap_open() in PHP and other products, launches an rsh command (by means…
- 7.5HighCVSS base score
- 96.1%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.1% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 2Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
University of Washington IMAP Toolkit 2007f on UNIX, as used in imap_open() in PHP and other products, launches an rsh command (by means of the imap_rimap function in c-client/imap4r1.c and the tcp_aopen function in osdep/unix/tcp_unix.c) without preventing argument injection, which might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary OS commands if the IMAP server name is untrusted input (e.g., entered by a user of a web application) and if rsh has been replaced by a program with different argument semantics. For example, if rsh is a link to ssh (as seen on Debian and Ubuntu systems), then the attack can use an IMAP server name containing a "-oProxyCommand" argument.
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 an Exploit-DB entry for it. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit.
Show the exploits3
Metasploit modules1 module
- php imap_open Remote Code Execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/linux/http/php_imap_open_rceRank gooddisclosed 23 Oct 2018
Exploit-DB1 entry
- PHP imap_open - Remote Code Execution (Metasploit) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 45914remote, linuxpublished 29 Nov 2018Verified
References tagged exploit1 reference
- 45914 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
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 mitre
Published
- 6 years later
· 6 years 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 96.1% · top 0.1% of all CVEs (11 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
References20
- https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=77160 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- 45914 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
- [debian-lts-announce] 20190301 [SECURITY] [DLA 1700-1] uw-imap security update (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20181221-0004/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- 1042157 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
- DSA-4353 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_DEBIANx_transferred
- https://github.com/Bo0oM/PHP_imap_open_exploit/blob/master/exploit.php (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://bugs.debian.org/913835 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/11/22/3 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://git.php.net/?p=php-src.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=e5bfea64c81ae34816479bb05d17cdffe45adddb (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- 106018 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=76428 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://bugs.debian.org/913775 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://bugs.debian.org/913836 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://antichat.com/threads/463395/#post-4254681 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=77153 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- [debian-lts-announce] 20181217 [SECURITY] [DLA 1608-1] php5 security update (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- USN-4160-1 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_UBUNTUx_transferred
- GLSA-202003-57 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_GENTOOx_transferred
- [debian-lts-announce] 20211229 [SECURITY] [DLA 2866-1] uw-imap security update (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
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-2018-11207 (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-2018-19518)Record last updated .