CVE-2017-9841

Exp

Util/PHP/eval-stdin.php in PHPUnit before 4.8.28 and 5.x before 5.6.3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code via HTTP POST data beginning with a "<?php " substring, as demonstrated by an attack on a site with an exposed /vendor folder, i.e., external access to the /vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Util/PHP/eval-stdin.php URI.

Published: 2017-06-27 Last update: 2026-04-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-9841 is rated Critical Active Threat (100/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 100.00%, 100th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2022-02-15) affecting PHPUnit / PHPUnit. a weakness (CWE-94) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. EPSS rose +5.84% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2017-9841

Name: PHPUnit Command Injection Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2022-02-15

Action due: 2022-08-15

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2017-9841

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
50702 exploit_db edb 2022-02-02 Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-9841

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 94.16% 100.00% +5.84%
2 2025-11-25 94.35% 94.16% -0.19%
3 2025-11-21 — 94.35% —

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-9841

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-9841

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2017-9841

GHSA-r7c9-c69m-rph8 · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: composer — Code Injection in PHPUnit

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-9841

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-9841 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (phpunit), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-9841
gentoo normal CVE-2017-9841: 1 GLSA(s) (201711-15), 1 atom(s) (dev-php/phpunit); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2017-9841
ubuntu high CVE-2017-9841 high priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (phpunit), 20 status rows across 20 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 14, ignored 3, released 2, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-9841

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-9841

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
phpunit_project phpunit <= 4.8.27 cpe:2.3:a:phpunit_project:phpunit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
phpunit_project phpunit >= 5.0.0, < 5.6.3 cpe:2.3:a:phpunit_project:phpunit:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_diameter_signaling_router >= 8.0.0, <= 8.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_diameter_signaling_router:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-9841

cvelogic Threat Intelligence