CriticalCVE-2018-7600

    Drupal Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2018-7600)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org, OSV

    What is affected, what to do

    An unauthenticated attacker can exploit a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Drupal Core, leading to full site compromise. The vulnerability affects multiple subsystems in default or common module configurations and is actively exploited in ransomware campaigns since 2021. Affected versions include Drupal before 7.58, 8.x before 8.3.9, 8.4.x before 8.4.6, and 8.5.x before 8.5.1. Immediate patching to the specified secure versions is critical to mitigate this risk.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. CISA lists it as used in ransomware campaigns. Update drupal to version 8.4.6. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Drupal before 7.58, 8.x before 8.3.9, 8.4.x before 8.4.6, and 8.5.x before 8.5.1 eq Drupal before 7.58, 8.x before 8.3.9, 8.4.x before 8.4.6, and 8.5.x before 8.5.1..Drupal before 7.58, 8.x before 8.3.9, 8.4.x before 8.4.6, and 8.5.x before 8.5.1

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org, OSV

    99.99 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.99

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    253.98 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    99.99 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.99
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 7 February 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-20

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This CVE sits on KEV because it has been mass-exploited and fully automated since 2018 — unauthenticated, network-reachable, no user interaction — against a widely deployed CMS stack. Attacker toolchains range from opportunistic scanners through cryptominer droppers to webshell deployment that later gets handed off for ransomware intrusions; CISA flags this CVE as used in ransomware campaigns. Treat any publicly reachable Drupal 7/8 instance as "critical, patch now"; internal instances rank one notch lower but remain urgent. Pay particular attention to legacy microsites and agency-handover projects that often have not seen a core update in years and routinely surface as the initial access vector in NIS2-scope audits.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Patch Drupal Core immediately: 7.x to 7.58, 8.3.x to 8.3.9, 8.4.x to 8.4.6, 8.5.x to 8.5.1 (or later). For Debian packages (debian_linux 7/8/9) apply the distro security updates.
      • Inventory every internet-reachable Drupal instance (HTTP/HTTPS 80/443), including forgotten marketing microsites, legacy projects and staging environments — shadow IT is the most common entry point for "Drupalgeddon2".
      • If patching cannot complete within hours, take affected sites behind a WAF block rule or reverse-proxy maintenance page (HTTP 503), or temporarily remove them from the internet.
      • Launch a compromise assessment: scan the webroot for unknown PHP files (.php, .phtml, .php7), modified index.php/settings.php, new cron jobs and anomalous files/ content. Cover the window since March 2018 — this bug has been mass-exploited for years.
      • After successful patching, rotate all secrets: Drupal admin accounts, DB credentials in settings.php, API keys, SMTP passwords, OAuth client secrets and any SSH keys owned by the web-service user.
      • Preserve DB and webroot backups taken before the patch (for forensics) and keep a clean pre-patch snapshot available for rollback.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • WAF / reverse proxy (nginx, Apache mod_security, Cloudflare, F5): block requests whose query or body parameter names start with # (#post_render, #markup, #type, #pre_render, #lazy_builder). ModSecurity example: SecRule ARGS_NAMES|ARGS "@rx ^#(post_render|markup|type|pre_render|lazy_builder)" "id:1007600,deny,log".
      • Network segmentation: Drupal web servers egress only to required destinations (DB, SMTP relay, update mirror). A tight egress policy breaks reverse shells to C2 and cryptominer pools (common Monero pool ports 3333, 5555, 7777, 14444).
      • PHP hardening: extend disable_functions in php.ini with exec, passthru, shell_exec, system, proc_open, popen, pcntl_exec; constrain open_basedir to the webroot and temp directories.
      • Filesystem hardening: make the webroot and sites/default/files read-only for the PHP process where Drupal allows it; disable PHP execution in upload directories at the web-server layer (<Directory> with php_admin_flag engine off, or an nginx location ~ /files/ { ... } without a PHP handler).
      • Least privilege for the database: dedicated DB user per site, no FILE or SUPER grants, never the root account.
      • Central monitoring of Composer / Core versions (e.g. drush pm:security or an external scanner) to surface orphaned legacy instances before an attacker does.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Review web-access logs for suspicious endpoints and payload parameters: requests against /user/register, /user/password, /?q=user/password, /user/login or any form URL carrying parameters that start with #. KQL example: W3CIISLog | where csUriQuery contains "#post_render" or csUriQuery contains "#markup" or csUriQuery contains "%23post_render".
      • Sysmon/EDR alerts on suspicious child processes of the web-server user (www-data, apache, nginx, php-fpm): Event ID 1 with ParentImage php-fpm/httpd and ChildImage sh, bash, wget, curl, python, perl, nc — classic reverse-shell and dropper pattern.
      • Filesystem monitoring (auditd / Sysmon FileCreate) for new .php files under sites/default/files/, modules/, themes/ outside the deployment window. Sigma shape: product: linux, service: auditd, selection: {type: PATH, name|endswith: '.php', name|contains: '/sites/default/files/'}.
      • Enable Zeek/Suricata signatures from the ETPRO/Emerging Threats sets for "Drupalgeddon2" (Suricata SID range from 2025131 onwards). Combine with egress alerts to known Monero pools and IRC/HTTP C2 ports.
      • Parse Drupal watchdog/dblog for unexpected admin logins, newly created users with the administrator role, and errors from Form API rendering (#pre_render exceptions).

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    Drupal before 7.58, 8.x before 8.3.9, 8.4.x before 8.4.6, and 8.5.x before 8.5.1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code because of an issue affecting multiple subsystems with default or common module configurations.

    Source: NVD (NIST), OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    —Drupal before 7.58, 8.x before 8.3.9, 8.4.x before 8.4.6, and 8.5.x before 8.5.1
    • Drupal before 7.58, 8.x before 8.3.9, 8.4.x before 8.4.6, and 8.5.x before 8.5.1
    • —
    drupaldrupal
    • 8.4.0 – < 8.4.6
    • ≤ 7.57
    • 8.0.0 – < 8.3.9
    • 8.5.0 – < 8.5.1
    • 8.4.6
    • —
    • 8.3.9
    • 8.5.1
    packagistdrupal/core
    • 8.1.0
    • 8.0.0-beta13
    • 8.2.0-rc2
    • 8.1.10
    • 8.2.3
    • 8.1.2
    • 8.1.0-rc1
    • 8.0.0-rc4
    • 8.4.2
    • 8.0.0-rc1
    • 8.0.0-beta12
    • 8.0.0-rc3
    • 8.4.3
    • 8.3.2
    • 8.1.7
    • 8.3.7
    • 8.0.4
    • 8.0.0-beta9
    • 8.2.2
    • 8.0.0-beta15
    • 8.0.5
    • 8.0.0-beta16
    • 8.2.1
    • 8.3.1
    • 8.0.3
    • 8.0.1
    • 8.5.0
    • 8.4.5
    • 8.3.0-rc1
    • 8.2.5
    • 8.0.0-beta7
    • 8.3.3
    • 8.0.2
    • 8.4.1
    • 8.1.3
    • 8.0.0-beta10
    • 8.1.5
    • 8.2.0-beta3
    • 8.2.4
    • 8.2.6
    • 8.3.6
    • 8.1.4
    • 7.0
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    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebiandebian_linux7.0
    Linuxdebiandebian_linux8.0
    Linuxdebiandebian_linux9.0

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-20Improper Input Validation

      Class

      The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-20

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    GitHuba2u/CVE-2018-7600 (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    GitHubg0rx/CVE-2018-7600-Drupal-RCE (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Exploit-DBEDB-ID 44448 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Exploit-DBEDB-ID 44449 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Exploit-DBEDB-ID 44482 (opens in a new tab)exploit-db.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)DC1-Penetration-Testing-Report (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)vulhub-drupal-cve-2018-7600 (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)DC-1_Vulnhub_Walkthrough (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)CVE-2018-7600 (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)drupalgeddon2-cve-lab (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)VulnHub-DC1-Writeup (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified
    PoC-in-GitHub (nomi-sec)drupalgeddon2-cli (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified

    References & sources

    • NVD (NIST)vuln/detail/CVE-2018-7600advisory
    • tenable.comblog/critical-drupal-core-vulnerability-what-you-need-to-knowweb, x_refsource_MISC, Third-party advisory
    • synology.comsupport/security/Synology_SA_18_17web, x_refsource_CONFIRM, Third-party advisory
    • exploit-db.comexploits/44482web
    • exploit-db.comexploits/44449web
    • exploit-db.comexploits/44448web
    • drupal.orgsa-core-2018-002web, x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
    • debian.orgDSA-4156web, Vendor advisory, x_refsource_DEBIAN, Third-party advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2018-7600web, government-resource, US government resource
    • twitter.comarancaytar/status/979090719003627521web, x_refsource_MISC, Third-party advisory
    • twitter.comRicterZ/status/984495201354854401web, x_refsource_MISC, Broken link, Third-party advisory
    • twitter.comRicterZ/status/979567469726613504web, x_refsource_MISC, Broken link, Third-party advisory
    • research.checkpoint.comuncovering-drupalgeddon-2web
    • lists.debian.org[debian-lts-announce] 20180328 [SECURITY] [DLA 1325-1] drupal7 security updateweb, Mailing list, x_refsource_MLIST, Third-party advisory
    • groups.drupal.orgsecurity/faq-2018-002web, x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
    • greysec.netshowthread.php?tid=2912&pid=10561web, x_refsource_MISC, Broken link, Issue tracking, Third-party advisory
    • github.comg0rx/CVE-2018-7600-Drupal-RCEweb, x_refsource_MISC, Patch, Third-party advisory
    • github.comdrupal/corepackage
    • github.coma2u/CVE-2018-7600web, x_refsource_MISC, Third-party advisory
    • github.comFriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/drupal/drupal/CVE-…web
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