CVE-2018-11781

Apache SpamAssassin 3.4.2 fixes a local user code injection in the meta rule syntax.

Published: 2018-09-17 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-11781 is rated Moderate Risk (52.2/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.99%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-11781

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 0.25% 0.99% +0.74%
2 2025-11-21 0.13% 0.25% +0.12%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.13% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-11781

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
4.6 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
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.
 3.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-11781

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-11781

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2018-11781: 1 source package rows (spamassassin); 10 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 10, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-11781
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-11781 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (spamassassin), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-11781
gentoo normal CVE-2018-11781: 1 GLSA(s) (201812-07), 1 atom(s) (mail-filter/spamassassin); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-11781
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-11781
suse high CVE-2018-11781 severity important: SUSE including 29 source package names (perl-Mail-SpamAssassin, perl-Mail-SpamAssassin-3.4.2-10.19, …), 97 product×package rows across 47 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.5, … (47 product lines)): Known Not Affected 53, Fixed 44. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-11781/
ubuntu low CVE-2018-11781 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (spamassassin), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, cosmic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 4, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-11781

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-11781

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache spamassassin < 3.4.2 cpe:2.3:a:apache:spamassassin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.5 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_eus:7.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-11781

cvelogic Threat Intelligence