PHPMailer Command Injection
What to do
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
CISA deadline 2025-07-28 · passed 1 year 1 month ago · applies to US federal civilian agencies; used elsewhere as a reference SLA
What happened
PHPMailer contains a command injection vulnerability because it fails to sanitize user-supplied input. Specifically, this issue affects the 'mail()' function of 'class.phpmailer.php' script. An attacker can exploit this issue to execute arbitrary code within the context of the application. Failed exploit attempts will result in a denial-of-service condition.
Who is affected
PHP PHPMailer. Affected version ranges are listed in the vendor advisory and the NVD entry linked under Sources.
Weakness class: CWE-77, CWE-88.
Timeline
- Added to CISA KEVExploitation in the wild confirmed by CISA
- CISA remediation deadlinepassed 1 year 1 month ago
Sources
- NVD entry for CVE-2016-10033 nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10033
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog
- github.com github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/releases/tag/v5.2.18
- github.com github.com/advisories/GHSA-5f37-gxvh-23v6
- nvd.nist.gov nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10033