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OS commands if the IMAP server name is untrusted input (e.g., entered by a user of a web application) and if rsh has been replaced by a program with different argument semantics.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.
CVE-2018-19518
Score elevated to 9.0 because EPSS predicts 95% probability of exploitation within the next 30 days (top 0.1% of all CVEs). NVD baseline CVSS 7.5 retained for reference. Confidence: see factors.
- High exploitation likelihood — EPSS 95%
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.5
- EG Score
- 9.0(high)
- EPSS
- 99.9%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
November 25, 2018
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
References (40)
- cve@mitrehttp://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106018
- cve@mitrehttp://www.securitytracker.com/id/1042157
- cve@mitrehttps://antichat.com/threads/463395/#post-4254681
- cve@mitrehttps://bugs.debian.org/913775
- cve@mitrehttps://bugs.debian.org/913835
- cve@mitrehttps://bugs.debian.org/913836
- cve@mitrehttps://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=76428
- cve@mitrehttps://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=77153
- cve@mitrehttps://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=77160
- cve@mitrehttps://git.php.net/?p=php-src.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=e5bfea64c81ae34816479bb05d17cdffe45adddb
- cve@mitrehttps://github.com/Bo0oM/PHP_imap_open_exploit/blob/master/exploit.php
- cve@mitrehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/12/msg00006.html
- cve@mitrehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/03/msg00001.html
- cve@mitrehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/12/msg00031.html
- cve@mitrehttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-57
Patch Availability(1)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | uw-mailutils (8:2007f~dfsg-4+deb8u1build0.16.04.1) @ xenial | 2026-05-28 | ubuntu |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(1)
Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 2× in last 7d / 11× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-22 22:15 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-21 02:47 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-03 21:56 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 09:43 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-11 13:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 13:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-29 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 00:55 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-28 00:55 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-28 00:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-27 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-24 08:06 UTCOSV refresh
Publicly available exploits
(3 references)Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (1 GitHub PoC) (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- Open source ↗GitHub PoChouqe/EXP_CVE-2018-19518First seen Apr 15, 2023
- Exploit-DBEDB-45914✓ verifiedFirst seen Nov 29, 2018
PHP imap_open - Remote Code Execution (Metasploit)
Open source ↗ - Metasploitexploit/linux/http/php_imap_open_rce✓ verifiedFirst seen Oct 23, 2018
php imap_open Remote Code Execution
Open source ↗
Frequently asked(5)
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