CVE-2018-6521

Exp

The sqlauth module in SimpleSAMLphp before 1.15.2 relies on the MySQL utf8 charset, which truncates queries upon encountering four-byte characters. There might be a scenario in which this allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions.

Published: 2018-02-02 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-6521 is rated High Exploit Risk (76.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.62%). 1 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-2018-6521

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-6521

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 2025-03-30 1.96% 0.62% -1.35%
2 2025-03-29 0.62% 1.96% +1.35%
3 2025-03-19 — 0.62% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-6521

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.0/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]
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-2018-6521

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2018-6521

GHSA-qv5p-6wrc-79wg · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: composer — SimpleSAMLphp Use of insecure connection charset (sqlauth module)

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-6521

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-6521 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (simplesamlphp), 3 status rows across 3 suites (bookworm, bullseye, sid): resolved 3. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-6521
ubuntu low CVE-2018-6521 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (simplesamlphp), 20 status rows across 20 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 16, DNE 1, ignored 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-6521

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-6521

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
simplesamlphp simplesamlphp < 1.15.2 cpe:2.3:a:simplesamlphp:simplesamlphp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-6521

cvelogic Threat Intelligence