CVE-2018-1000226 — cobbler
CRITICALCVE-2018-1000226 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-732 vulnerability in cobbler. A fix is available for cobbler — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cobbler Improper Validation of Security Tokens
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2018-1000226 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
cobblerReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Cobbler version Verified as present in Cobbler versions 2.6.11+, but code inspection suggests at least 2.0.0+ or possibly even older versions may be vulnerable contains a Incorrect Access Control vulnerability in XMLRPC API (/cobbler_api) that can result in Privilege escalation, data manipulation or exfiltration, LDAP credential harvesting. This attack appear to be exploitable via "network connectivity". Taking advantage of improper validation of security tokens in API endpoints. Please note this is a different issue than CVE-2018-10931.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | cobbler | all versions | 3.0.0pip install --upgrade 'cobbler==3.0.0' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cobbler, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update cobbler to 3.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-1000226 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2018-1000226 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2018-1000226. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
How to detect CVE-2018-1000226
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2018-1000226 -u https://target- Template
- Cobbler - Authentication Bypass
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Unauthenticated attackers can bypass authentication to gain unauthorized access, leading to privilege escalation, data manipulation or exfiltration, and LDAP credential harvesting.
- Remediation
- Apply the latest security patches or updates provided by the vendor to fix the authentication bypass vulnerability in Cobbler.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (c-sh0), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2018-1000226 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2018-1000226 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.