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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2018-16789

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2019-03-21
  • WeaknessCWE-835

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

libhttp/url.c in shellinabox through 2.20 has an implementation flaw in the HTTP request parsing logic. By sending a crafted multipart/form-data HTTP request, an attacker could exploit this to force shellinaboxd into an infinite loop, exhausting available CPU resources and taking the service down.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2019-03-2116:00CVE publishedNVD

Versions per branch

NVD
Shellinabox project shellinabox
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.20≤ 2.20no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • shellinaboxUbuntu:18.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • shellinaboxUbuntu:16.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • shellinaboxDebian:14all versions · fixed in 2.21
  • shellinaboxDebian:13all versions · fixed in 2.21
  • shellinaboxDebian:12all versions · fixed in 2.21

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2018-16789 Red Hat Product Security

    shellinabox: Infinite loop due to malformed request payload

Full record on NVD

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof of concept
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2019-03-21
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-c93f-9f7g-fv7h

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-16789?

libhttp/url.c in shellinabox through 2.20 has an implementation flaw in the HTTP request parsing logic. By sending a crafted multipart/form-data HTTP request, an attacker could exploit this to force shellinaboxd into an infinite loop, exhausting available CPU resources and taking the service down.

Is CVE-2018-16789 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-16789 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 6.0% on 2026-11-08, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-16789?

CVE-2018-16789 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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