CVE-2018-7602
CRITICALCVE-2018-7602 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Code Injection vulnerability in drupal/core. 10 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2018-7602 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Drupal Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- CISA’s SSVC triage classifies this CVE as under active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2018-7602.
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-2018-7602 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE sits: patch-first territory.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 368,770 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
drupal/core🐘drupal/core🐘drupal/core🐘drupal/drupal🐘drupal/drupal🐘drupal/drupalReal-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
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | drupal/core | ≥ 7.0&&< 7.59 | 7.59 |
| 🐘Packagist | drupal/core | ≥ 8.0&&< 8.4.8 | 8.4.8 |
| 🐘Packagist | drupal/core | ≥ 8.5&&< 8.5.3 | 8.5.3 |
| 🐘Packagist | drupal/drupal | ≥ 7.0&&< 7.59 | 7.59 |
| 🐘Packagist | drupal/drupal | ≥ 8.0&&< 8.4.8 | 8.4.8 |
| 🐘Packagist | drupal/drupal | ≥ 8.5&&< 8.5.3 | 8.5.3 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Drupal < 7.58 - 'Drupalgeddon3' (Authenticated) Remote Code Execution (PoC)
by Blaklis · Apr 25, 2018
Drupal < 7.58 - 'Drupalgeddon3' (Authenticated) Remote Code (Metasploit)
by SixP4ck3r · Apr 30, 2018
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for drupal/core. 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 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
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-2018-7602 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-2018-7602. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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-2018-7602 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2018-7602 across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.