CVE-2018-19518

Exp

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OS commands if the IMAP server name is untrusted input (e.g., entered by a user of a web application) and if rsh has been replaced by a program with different argument semantics.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.

Published: 2018-11-25 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-19518 is rated High Exploit Risk (79.9/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 93.87%, 100th percentile). 7 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2018-19518

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
45914 exploit_db edb 2018-11-29 Exploit-DB ↗
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Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-19518

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 2026-04-09 93.96% 93.87% -0.09%
2 2025-12-28 93.90% 93.96% +0.06%
3 2025-12-27 — 93.90% —

Full EPSS history (33 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-19518

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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.
 1.6 5.9 [email protected]
8.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 6.8 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-19518

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-19518

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-19518 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (uw-imap), 2 status rows across 2 suites (bookworm, bullseye): resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-19518
gentoo high CVE-2018-19518: 1 GLSA(s) (202003-57), 1 atom(s) (dev-lang/php); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-19518
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-19518
suse high CVE-2018-19518 severity important: SUSE including 261 source package names (apache2-mod_php5-5.2.14-0.7.30.111.38.1, apache2-mod_php5-5.5.14-109.45.2, …), 656 product×package rows across 17 product lines (SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS, … (17 product lines)): Known Not Affected 357, Fixed 299. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-19518/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-19518 medium priority: Ubuntu including 6 source packages (php-imap, php5, php7.0, php7.2, php7.3, uw-imap), 72 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 48, released 13, not-affected 8, needs-triage 2, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-19518

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-19518

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
php php >= 5.6.0, <= 5.6.38 cpe:2.3:a:php:php:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
php php >= 7.0.0, <= 7.0.32 cpe:2.3:a:php:php:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
php php >= 7.1.0, <= 7.1.24 cpe:2.3:a:php:php:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
php php >= 7.2.0, <= 7.2.12 cpe:2.3:a:php:php:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
uw-imap_project uw-imap 2007f cpe:2.3:a:uw-imap_project:uw-imap:2007f:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 19.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:19.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-19518

URL Tags
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106018 Broken Link
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1042157 Broken Link
https://antichat.com/threads/463395/#post-4254681 Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.debian.org/913775 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.debian.org/913835 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.debian.org/913836 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=76428 Exploit Mailing List Vendor Advisory
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=77153 Exploit Mailing List Vendor Advisory
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=77160 Vendor Advisory
https://git.php.net/?p=php-src.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=e5bfea64c81ae34816479bb05d17cdffe45adddb
https://github.com/Bo0oM/PHP_imap_open_exploit/blob/master/exploit.php Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/12/msg00006.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/03/msg00001.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/12/msg00031.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-57 Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20181221-0004/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4160-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4353 Third Party Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45914/ Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/11/22/3 Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
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