CVE-2019-12181A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in SolarWinds Serv-U before 15.1.7 for Linux.
- 8.8HighCVSS base score
- 65.4%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.7% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 4Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in SolarWinds Serv-U before 15.1.7 for Linux.
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 3 Exploit-DB entries for it.
Show the exploits4
Metasploit modules1 module
- Serv-U FTP Server prepareinstallation Privilege Escalation (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/linux/local/servu_ftp_server_prepareinstallation_priv_escRank excellentdisclosed 5 Jun 2019
Exploit-DB3 entries
- Serv-U FTP Server - prepareinstallation Privilege Escalation (Metasploit) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 47072local, linuxpublished 3 Jul 2019Verified
- Serv-U FTP Server < 15.1.7 - Local Privilege Escalation (1) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 47009local, linuxpublished 18 Jun 2019Verified
- Serv-U FTP Server < 15.1.7 - Local Privilege Escalation (2) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 47173local, multiplepublished 13 Jan 2019Not verified
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
- 29 days later
· 29 days later
Published
- 5 years later
· 5 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 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 65.4% · top 0.7% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.8.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
References5
- https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/servu/Content/Release_Notes/Servu_15-1-7_release_notes.htm (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://support.solarwinds.com/SuccessCenter/s/article/Serv-U-Potential-elevation-of-privileges-on-Linux-systems (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/153333/Serv-U-FTP-Server-15.1.6-Privilege-Escalation.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://blog.vastart.dev/2019/06/cve-2019-12181-serv-u-exploit-writeup.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/153505/Serv-U-FTP-Server-prepareinstallation-Privilege-Escalation.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_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-2019-3830 (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-2019-12181)Record last updated .