CVE-2019-11281 | RabbitMQ XSS attack

Pivotal RabbitMQ, versions prior to v3.7.18, and RabbitMQ for PCF, versions 1.15.x prior to 1.15.13, versions 1.16.x prior to 1.16.6, and versions 1.17.x prior to 1.17.3, contain two components, the virtual host limits page, and the federation management UI, which do not properly sanitize user input. A remote authenticated malicious user with administrative access could craft a cross site scripting attack that would gain access to virtual hosts and policy management information.

Published: 2019-10-16 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-11281 is rated Moderate Risk (41.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.17%). 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-2019-11281

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 1.02% 1.17% +0.14%
2 2025-11-21 0.47% 1.02% +0.55%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.47% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-11281

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.7 2.7 [email protected]
2.4 3.0 LOW
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 0.9 1.4 [email protected]
3.5 2.0 LOW
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N 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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 6.8 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-11281

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-11281

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2019-11281 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (rabbitmq-server), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-11281
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-11281
suse medium CVE-2019-11281 severity moderate: SUSE including 2 source package names (rabbitmq-server, rabbitmq-server-plugins), 16 product×package rows across 9 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, HPE Helion OpenStack Cloud 8, … (9 product lines)): Known Not Affected 16. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-11281/
ubuntu low CVE-2019-11281 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (rabbitmq-server), 11 status rows across 11 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 2, DNE 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-11281

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-11281

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
pivotal_software rabbitmq < 3.7.18 cpe:2.3:a:pivotal_software:rabbitmq:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
pivotal_software rabbitmq >= 1.15.0, < 1.15.13 cpe:2.3:a:pivotal_software:rabbitmq:*:*:*:*:*:pivotal_cloud_foundry:*:*
pivotal_software rabbitmq >= 1.16.0, < 1.16.6 cpe:2.3:a:pivotal_software:rabbitmq:*:*:*:*:*:pivotal_cloud_foundry:*:*
pivotal_software rabbitmq >= 1.17.0, < 1.17.3 cpe:2.3:a:pivotal_software:rabbitmq:*:*:*:*:*:pivotal_cloud_foundry:*:*
redhat openstack 15 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack:15:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openstack_for_ibm_power 15 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack_for_ibm_power:15:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 30 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-11281

cvelogic Threat Intelligence