vBulletin 5.x through 5.5.4 allows remote command execution via the widgetConfig[code] parameter in an ajax/render/widget_php routestring request.
CVE-2019-16759
“—” beside the score: it is equal to NVD's CVSS score.
Score elevated to 9.8 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.
Also known asEUVD-2019-7294 (ENISA EUVD) · GHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp (GitHub Security Advisories)Source: ENISA EUVD
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV) — the reason this is sooner than the SSVC decision on this page at low mission impact
No fix has been recorded since the CVE record was published in 2019 — use a compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and check the vendor's advisory.
The CVE record's description, written by its CNA (MITRE Corporation), states the affected versions: "vBulletin 5.x through 5.5.4 allows remote command execution via the widgetConfig[code] parameter in an ajax/render/widget_php routestring request." No release containing a fix is confirmed on record.
- CVSS v3
- 9.8
- EG Score
- 9.8CRITICALhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 99EG Risk 99/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity98% × 45%Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 9.8 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.Exploitation100% × 40%Fixed at 100% for a CISA KEV listing: EchelonGraph's rule.Automatability100% × 15%CISA's SSVC Automatable value: yes (Vulnrichment).SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Attend at low mission impact; Act at medium or high.Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: No fix has been recorded since the CVE record was published in 2019. Check the vendor's advisory for a fixed release; until one is applied, restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation sooner than your normal schedule at low mission impact and as soon as possible at medium or high. - EPSS PROB
- 99.7%
- EPSS %ILE
- 99th
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (9.8): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 9.8 is its impact severity (EG Severity), not escalated.
- EG Severity
- 9.8 CRITICALCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
- EG Likelihood
- 99.7% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-11-02). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- CISA KEV and EG-KEV Tier 1 (exploited in the wild)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Act at medium mission impactAttend at low mission impact; Act at medium or high.CISA BOD 26-04: 3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 3 days & forensic triage if it is not.No released fix is confirmed on this page, but CISA's timeline does not wait for a fix's release: this CVE is in CISA's KEV catalog, and CISA's required action for it, quoted below, applies whether or not a fix is released.Each input and its source, and whom BOD 26-04 binds: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Attend at low mission impact; Act at medium or high.
No fix has been recorded since the CVE record was published in 2019. Check the vendor's advisory for a fixed release; until one is applied, restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation sooner than your normal schedule at low mission impact and as soon as possible at medium or high.
Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 3 days & forensic triage if it is not.
No released fix is confirmed on this page, but CISA's timeline does not wait for a fix's release: this CVE is in CISA's KEV catalog, and CISA's required action for it, quoted below, applies whether or not a fix is released.
The score's inputs: In CISA KEV yes (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
CISA required action“Apply updates per vendor instructions.”
Quoted verbatim from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. CISA directs it at US federal civilian executive branch agencies under Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04, which replaced BOD 22-01 on 10 June 2026; it is not EchelonGraph's advice. CISA's notes: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-16759
Published
September 24, 2019
Last Modified
November 7, 2025
Advisory Details (10)
Auto-updated Oct 30, 2026This vBulletin vBug is vBad: Zero-day exploit lets miscreants hijack vulnerable web forums
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/24/vbulletin_vbug_zeroday/Full Disclosure: vBulletin 5.x 0day pre-auth RCE exploit
https://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Sep/31High-severity vulnerability in vBulletin is being actively exploited - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/public-exploit-code-spawns-mass-attacks-against-high-severity-vbulletin-bug/Full Disclosure: Remote Code Execution 0day in vBulletin 5.x
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Aug/5Packet Storm
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158866/vBulletin-5.x-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlPacket Storm
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158830/vBulletin-5.x-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlPacket Storm
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158829/vBulletin-5.x-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlPacket Storm
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/155633/vBulletin-5.5.4-Remote-Command-Execution.htmlWeakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 14× in last 7d / 95× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. 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. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 936 refreshes on record for this CVE.
A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. None are among the latest 100 rows. The 836 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.
- 2026-11-03 01:51 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-11-03 01:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-11-02 00:56 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-11-02 00:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-11-01 00:02 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-11-01 00:01 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-30 23:06 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-30 23:06 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-29 22:11 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-29 22:11 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-28 21:15 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-28 21:15 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-27 20:20 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-27 20:20 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-26 19:25 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-26 19:24 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-25 18:29 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-25 18:29 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-24 17:33 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-24 17:33 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-23 16:38 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-23 16:38 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-22 15:40 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-22 15:40 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-21 14:43 UTCEG score recompute
Show 75 moreShow fewer
- 2026-10-21 14:43 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-20 13:47 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-20 13:46 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-19 12:52 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-19 12:52 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-18 11:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-18 09:51 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-17 11:01 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-17 11:01 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-16 10:05 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-16 10:04 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-15 09:07 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-15 09:07 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-14 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 99.7% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-14 08:11 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-14 08:11 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-13 07:16 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-12 19:59 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-12 06:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-12 02:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-11 22:19 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 22:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-11 18:19 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 18:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-11 14:21 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 14:21 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-11 10:23 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-11 06:25 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-11 02:27 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-10 22:28 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-10 18:27 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-10 14:29 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-10 10:31 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-10 06:32 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-10 02:35 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-09 22:37 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-09 18:38 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-09 14:40 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-09 10:38 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-09 06:35 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-09 02:37 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-08 22:39 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-08 18:41 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-08 14:43 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-08 10:43 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-08 06:44 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-08 02:46 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-07 22:48 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-07 18:50 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-07 14:52 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-07 10:54 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-07 06:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-07 02:58 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-06 23:00 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-06 19:02 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-06 15:01 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-06 11:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-06 07:05 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-06 03:07 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-05 23:09 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-05 19:07 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-05 15:09 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-05 11:10 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-05 07:13 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-05 03:15 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-04 23:17 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-04 19:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-04 15:20 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-04 11:22 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-04 07:24 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-04 03:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-03 23:29 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-03 19:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-03 15:33 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
- 2026-10-03 11:35 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-c7wq-5768-48mp · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 9.8
Publicly available exploits
(11 references, 10 shown)Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 Metasploit module, 2 Exploit-DB entries, 7 GitHub PoCs), as is 1 Nuclei detection template. A detection template checks whether a system is affected; it is not necessarily exploit code. No fix has been recorded since the CVE record was published in 2019. If the vendor still supports the product, apply the fixed version it names; if it no longer does, isolate the affected system.
- Metasploitexploit/multi/http/vbulletin_widgetconfig_rce✓ verifiedPublished Dec 10, 2019
vBulletin widgetConfig RCE
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoC0xdims/CVE-2019-16759Published Aug 16, 2020
This tools will extracts and dumps Email + SMTP from vBulletin database server
Open source ↗ - Nucleihttp/cves/2019/CVE-2019-16759.yamlPublished Jul 17, 2020
vBulletin 5.0.0-5.5.4 - Remote Command Execution
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCandripwn/pwn-vbulletinPublished Dec 29, 2019
Identify vulnerable (RCE) vBulletin 5.0.0 - 5.5.4 instances using Shodan (CVE-2019-16759)
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCFarjaalAhmad/CVE-2019-16759Published Oct 12, 2019
Interactive-Like Command-Line Console for CVE-2019-16759
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCtheLSA/vbulletin5-rcePublished Oct 2, 2019
CVE-2019-16759 vbulletin 5.0.0 till 5.5.4 pre-auth rce
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-47437Published Sep 30, 2019
vBulletin 5.x - Remote Command Execution (Metasploit)
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCjas502n/CVE-2019-16759Published Sep 26, 2019
vBulletin 5.x 未授权远程代码执行漏洞
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCr00tpgp/http-vuln-CVE-2019-16759Published Sep 26, 2019
Nmap NSE Script to Detect vBulletin pre-auth 5.x RCE CVE-2019-16759
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoCM0sterHxck/CVE-2019-16759-Vbulletin-rce-exploitPublished Sep 25, 2019
Vbulletin rce exploit CVE-2019-16759
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same CWE)
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-20 · CWE-94
Frequently asked(6)
What is CVE-2019-16759?
When was the CVE record for CVE-2019-16759 published?
Is CVE-2019-16759 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-16759?
Which products are affected by CVE-2019-16759?
How do I remediate CVE-2019-16759?
Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2019-16759
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