CVE-2019-18217

Exp

ProFTPD before 1.3.6b and 1.3.7rc before 1.3.7rc2 allows remote unauthenticated denial-of-service due to incorrect handling of overly long commands because main.c in a child process enters an infinite loop.

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

CVE-2019-18217 is rated High Exploit Risk (73.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.31%). 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-2019-18217

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-18217

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 2026-03-05 5.65% 3.31% -2.34%
2 2026-01-14 4.69% 5.65% +0.96%
3 2025-12-28 — 4.69% —

Full EPSS history (27 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-18217

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:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-18217

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-18217

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2019-18217 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (proftpd-dfsg), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-18217
gentoo normal CVE-2019-18217: 1 GLSA(s) (202003-35), 1 atom(s) (net-ftp/proftpd); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2019-18217
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-18217 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (proftpd-dfsg), 18 status rows across 18 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 10, needs-triage 7, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-18217

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-18217

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
proftpd proftpd <= 1.3.5 cpe:2.3:a:proftpd:proftpd:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
proftpd proftpd 1.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:proftpd:proftpd:1.3.6:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
proftpd proftpd 1.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:proftpd:proftpd:1.3.6:a:*:*:*:*:*:*
proftpd proftpd 1.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:proftpd:proftpd:1.3.6:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
proftpd proftpd 1.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:proftpd:proftpd:1.3.6:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
proftpd proftpd 1.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:proftpd:proftpd:1.3.6:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
proftpd proftpd 1.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:proftpd:proftpd:1.3.6:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
proftpd proftpd 1.3.7 cpe:2.3:a:proftpd:proftpd:1.3.7:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-18217

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-01/msg00009.html
https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/pdf/ssa-940889.pdf
https://github.com/proftpd/proftpd/blob/1.3.6/NEWS Release Notes Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/proftpd/proftpd/blob/1.3.6/RELEASE_NOTES Release Notes Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/proftpd/proftpd/blob/master/NEWS Release Notes Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/proftpd/proftpd/blob/master/RELEASE_NOTES Release Notes Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/proftpd/proftpd/issues/846 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/10/msg00036.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/NJDQRVZTILBX4BUCTIRKP2WBHDHDCJR5/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RB2FPAWDWXT5ALAFIC5Y3RSEMXSFL6H2/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/YLRPYEEMQJVAXO2SXRGOQ4HBFEEPCNXG/
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Nov/7
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-35
https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4559
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