How severe is CVE-2018-16974?

CVE-2018-16974 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2018-16974?

CVE-2018-16974 affects the following packages: elefant/cms (Packagist). Ecosystems affected: Packagist.

How do I fix CVE-2018-16974?

Update elefant/cms to 2.0.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-16974 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2018-16974 in my Packagist dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for elefant/cms. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2018-16974 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2018-16974?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2018-16974 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2018-16974 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2018-16974, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2018-16974?

CVE-2018-16974 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 3.6%, placing it in the 88th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2018-16974?

CVE-2018-16974 is classified as Unrestricted File Upload (CWE-434). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2018-16974 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2018-16974 was published on September 12, 2018 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CVE-2018-16974: Elefant CMS Code Execution Vulnerability (Criti…

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

3.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk88th percentile+3.32%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐘elefant/cms

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

An issue was discovered in Elefant CMS before 2.0.7. There is a PHP Code Execution Vulnerability in apps/filemanager/upload/drop.php by using /filemanager/api/rm/.htaccess to remove the .htaccess file, and then using a filename that ends in .php followed by space characters (for bypassing the blacklist).

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐘Packagist	`elefant/cms`	all versions	2.0.7

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for elefant/cms. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update elefant/cms to 2.0.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-16974 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2018-16974 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2018-16974. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

An issue was discovered in Elefant CMS before 2.0.7. There is a PHP Code Execution Vulnerability in apps/filemanager/upload/drop.php by using /filemanager/api/rm/.htaccess to remove the .htaccess file, and then using a filename that ends in .php followed by space characters (for bypassing the blacklist).

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2018-16974 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2018-16974 across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

CVE-2018-16974