How severe is CVE-2018-7602?

CVE-2018-7602 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2018-7602?

CVE-2018-7602 affects the following packages: drupal/core (Packagist), drupal/core (Packagist), drupal/core (Packagist), drupal/drupal (Packagist), drupal/drupal (Packagist), drupal/drupal (Packagist). Ecosystems affected: Packagist.

How do I fix CVE-2018-7602?

Update drupal/core to 7.59 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-7602 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2018-7602 in my Packagist dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for drupal/core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2018-7602 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.

Is CVE-2018-7602 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 10 known exploit references for CVE-2018-7602, including 2 documented proof-of-concept exploits on Exploit-DB and 6 in-the-wild exploitations 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-2018-7602?

CVE-2018-7602 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 99.2%, placing it in the 100th 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. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2018-7602 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2018-7602 (Drupal Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2022-04-13. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-05-04. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. This CVE has been used in known ransomware campaigns. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2018-7602?

CVE-2018-7602 is classified as Code Injection (CWE-94). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2018-7602?

A Nuclei detection template exists for CVE-2018-7602, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2018-7602 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2018-7602 was published on July 19, 2018 and was last updated on October 20, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐘

🐘 Packagist

CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2018-7602 — core

CRITICAL

CVE-2018-7602 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Code Injection vulnerability in drupal/core. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-04-13) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available for drupal/core — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Drupal Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Also known asDRUPAL-CORE-2018-004GHSA-297x-j9pm-xjgg

Published

Jul 19, 2018

Updated

Oct 20, 2026

Affected

6 pkgs

Patched

6 / 6

Exploits

10 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 20, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-04-13 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-04.
A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2018-7602.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

99.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk-0.03%

Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2018-7602 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,415 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

6 pkgs affected

🐘drupal/core🐘drupal/core🐘drupal/core🐘drupal/drupal🐘drupal/drupal🐘drupal/drupal

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

A remote code execution vulnerability exists within multiple subsystems of Drupal 7.x and 8.x. This potentially allows attackers to exploit multiple attack vectors on a Drupal site, which could result in the site being compromised. This vulnerability is related to Drupal core - Highly critical - Remote Code Execution - SA-CORE-2018-002. Both SA-CORE-2018-002 and this vulnerability are being exploited in the wild.

Affected Packages

6 total 6 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐘Packagist	`drupal/core`	≥ 7.0&&< 7.59	7.59`composer require drupal/core:^7.59`
🐘Packagist	`drupal/core`	≥ 8.0&&< 8.4.8	8.4.8`composer require drupal/core:^8.4.8`
🐘Packagist	`drupal/core`	≥ 8.5&&< 8.5.3	8.5.3`composer require drupal/core:^8.5.3`
🐘Packagist	`drupal/drupal`	≥ 7.0&&< 7.59	7.59`composer require drupal/drupal:^7.59`
🐘Packagist	`drupal/drupal`	≥ 8.0&&< 8.4.8	8.4.8`composer require drupal/drupal:^8.4.8`
🐘Packagist	`drupal/drupal`	≥ 8.5&&< 8.5.3	8.5.3`composer require drupal/drupal:^8.5.3`

Affected Products

2 products · 6 configurations

debian linuxdebian

3 versions

7.08.09.0

Application

drupaldrupal

≥ 8.5.0 && < 8.5.3

range

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-44557webappsphp✓ Verified

Drupal < 7.58 - 'Drupalgeddon3' (Authenticated) Remote Code (Metasploit)

by SixP4ck3r · Apr 30, 2018

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-44542webappsphp✓ Verified

Drupal < 7.58 - 'Drupalgeddon3' (Authenticated) Remote Code Execution (PoC)

by Blaklis · Apr 25, 2018

Exploit-DB Source

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for drupal/core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update drupal/core to 7.59 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-7602 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.

How to detect CVE-2018-7602

A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:

nuclei -id cve-2018-7602 -u https://target

Template: Drupal - Remote Code Execution
Severity: critical
Impact: Remote attackers can execute arbitrary code on the affected Drupal installations.
Remediation: Upgrade to Drupal 7.58, 8.3.9, 8.4.6, or 8.5.1 or apply the necessary patches provided by Drupal.

Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (princechaddha), 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.

UbuntuCRITICAL

USN-4773-1Ubuntu

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2018-7602 in your dependencies?

Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

CVSS Score

9.8/10CVSS v3 base

Vector breakdown

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE Classification

Weaponization

OpenSSF Scorecard

Package health score

security-advisories

4.8/10

Maintained10/10

Code-Review10/10

Branch-Protection0/10

Assessed Oct 19, 2026

Timeline

First exploit

Apr 30, 2018

Disclosed

Jul 19, 2018

KEV added

Apr 13, 2022

Last updated

Oct 20, 2026

Identifiers

CVE-2018-7602

GHSA-297x-j9pm-xjgg

DRUPAL-CORE-2018-004

References

Advisorysecurityfocus.com Advisorysecuritytracker.com Advisorylists.debian.org Advisorydebian.org Advisorynvd.nist.gov Fixdrupal.org Webcisa.gov Webgithub.com Webgithub.com Webexploit-db.com Webexploit-db.com Packagegithub.com Evidenceexploit-db.com Evidenceexploit-db.com

Related vulnerabilities

This CVE is critical severity; 1 of 8 other CVEs affecting drupal/core is rated as high or higher (top: critical).

CVE-2026-6365CVE-2026-9082CVE-2026-6367CVE-2026-6366CVE-2025-13080CVE-2025-13082CVE-2025-13081CVE-2025-13083

Provenance

Sources

OSV.devNVDCISA KEVFIRST.org (EPSS)

Last verifiedOct 20, 2026

CVE-2018-7602 — core

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

EPSS Exploitation Probability

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

Description

Affected Packages

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

How to detect CVE-2018-7602

Fixing This On Your OS

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2018-7602 in your dependencies?