CVE-2018-20145

Eclipse Mosquitto 1.5.x before 1.5.5 allows ACL bypass: if the option per_listener_settings was set to true, and the default listener was in use, and the default listener specified an acl_file, then the acl file was being ignored.

Published: 2018-12-13 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-20145 is rated Moderate Risk (57.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.65%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.42% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: 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-2018-20145

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 0.23% 1.65% +1.42%
2 2025-03-30 0.27% 0.23% -0.04%
3 2025-03-29 0.27%

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-20145

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N 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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N 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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-20145

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-20145

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2018-20145: 1 source package rows (mosquitto); 5 state rows across 5 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 5. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-20145
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-20145 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (mosquitto), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-20145
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-20145 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (mosquitto), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, cosmic, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 4, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-20145

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-20145

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
eclipse mosquitto >= 1.5, < 1.5.5 cpe:2.3:a:eclipse:mosquitto:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-20145

cvelogic Threat Intelligence