CVE-2016-10045
highpriority · act · 83EPSS 0.977 · 100 %ileexploit · PoCEUUSEPSS · scored 2026-10-26
The isMail transport in PHPMailer before 5.2.20 might allow remote attackers to pass extra parameters to the mail command and consequently execute arbitrary code by leveraging improper interaction between the escapeshellarg function and internal escaping performed in the mail function in PHP. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incorrect fix for CVE-2016-10033.
cvss
Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.
base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · high–critical · 7.5–9.8
weaknesses
The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.
exploits (4)
Public proof-of-concept and weaponised exploit code.
- EDB-40969PHPMailer < 5.2.20 - Remote Code ExecutionPoC · exploit_db
affected products (5)
Products and version ranges known to be affected.
advisories (1)
Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.
- GHSA-4pc3-96mx-wwc8Remote code execution in PHPMailer2020-03-05ghsa · osvUS
### Impact The `isMail` transport in PHPMailer before 5.2.20 might allow remote attackers to pass extra parameters to the `mail` command and consequently execute arbitrary code by leveraging improper interaction between the `escapeshellarg` function and internal escaping performed in the mail function in PHP. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incorrect fix for CVE-2016-10033. This issue really emphasises that it's worth avoiding the built-in PHP `mail()` function entirely. ### Patches Fixed in 5.2.20 ### Workarounds Send via SMTP to localhost instead of calling the `mail()` function. ### References https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10045 See also https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10033 ### For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: * Open a private issue in [the PHPMailer project](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer)
also known as (3)
Other names and identifiers for this entity.
sources
Which sources assert this record, and when.
references (46)
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/12/28/1cnnvd
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Dec/81cnnvd
- http://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/multi/cnnvd
- http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/539967/100/0/threadedcnnvd
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1037533cnnvd
- https://developer.joomla.org/security-centre/668-20161205-phpmailer-security-advisory.htmlcnnvd
- https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/releases/tag/v5.2.20cnnvd
- https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/About-the-CVE-2016-10033-and-CVE-2016-10045-vulnerabilitiescnnvd
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