GHSA-297x-j9pm-xjgg DRUPAL-CORE-2018-004 GHSA-297x-j9pm-xjgg

Drupal Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Critical Known exploited Packagist

Severity: 9.8 / 10; Critical · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS): 99.17%; Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 99.93% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited: Yes; In CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Fix: Available; 2 packages have a fixed version

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 versions

Packagist

Package	Vulnerable	Fixed in
drupal/core	`>= 7.0, < 7.59`	`7.59`
drupal/core	`>= 8.0, < 8.4.8`	`8.4.8`
drupal/core	`>= 8.5, < 8.5.3`	`8.5.3`
drupal/core	`>= 8.0.0, < 8.4.8` `>= 8.5.0, < 8.5.3`	`8.4.8` `8.5.3`
drupal/core	`>= 8.0, < 8.4.8`	`8.4.8`
drupal/core	`>= 8.5, < 8.5.3`	`8.5.3`
drupal/drupal	`>= 7.0, < 7.59`	`7.59`
drupal/drupal	`>= 8.0, < 8.4.8`	`8.4.8`
drupal/drupal	`>= 8.5, < 8.5.3`	`8.5.3`
drupal/drupal	`>= 8.0, < 8.4.8`	`8.4.8`
drupal/drupal	`>= 8.5, < 8.5.3`	`8.5.3`

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

drupal/core Packagist → `7.59`

composer

composer require drupal/core:^7.59

drupal/drupal Packagist → `7.59`

composer

composer require drupal/drupal:^7.59

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 9.8

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

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High
Exploit maturity: H

Weakness

CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment.

How to prevent it

Architecture and Design: Refactor your program so that you do not have to dynamically generate code.
Architecture and Design: Run your code in a "jail" or similar sandbox environment that enforces strict boundaries between the process and the operating system. This may effectively restrict which code can be executed by your product. Examples include the Unix chroot jail and AppArmor. In general, managed code may provide some protection. This may not be a feasible solution, and it only limits the impact to the operating system; the rest of your application may still be subject to compromise. Be careful to avoid CWE-243 and other weaknesses related to jails.
Implementation: Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does. When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, "boat" may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as "red" or "blue." Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code's environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright. To reduce the likelihood of code injection, use stringent allowlists that limit which constructs are allowed. If you are dynamically constructing code that invokes a function, then verifying that the input is alphanumeric might be insufficient. An attacker might still be able to reference a dangerous function that you did not intend to allow, such as system(), exec(), or exit().
Testing: Use dynamic tools and techniques that interact with the product using large test suites with many diverse inputs, such as fuzz testing (fuzzing), robustness testing, and fault injection. The product's operation may slow down, but it should not become unstable, crash, or generate incorrect results.
Operation: Run the code in an environment that performs automatic taint propagation and prevents any command execution that uses tainted variables, such as Perl's "-T" switch. This will force the program to perform validation steps that remove the taint, although you must be careful to correctly validate your inputs so that you do not accidentally mark dangerous inputs as untainted (see CWE-183 and CWE-184).
Operation: Run the code in an environment that performs automatic taint propagation and prevents any command execution that uses tainted variables, such as Perl's "-T" switch. This will force the program to perform validation steps that remove the taint, although you must be careful to correctly validate your inputs so that you do not accidentally mark dangerous inputs as untainted (see CWE-183 and CWE-184).
Implementation: For Python programs, it is frequently encouraged to use the ast.literal_eval() function instead of eval, since it is intentionally designed to avoid executing code. However, an adversary could still cause excessive memory or stack consumption via deeply nested structures [REF-1372], so the python documentation discourages use of ast.literal_eval() on untrusted data [REF-1373].

References

Advisories

Packages

github.com/drupal/core

Timeline

Apr 25, 2018 Published
Oct 2, 2026 Last updated by the source

Advisory	Severity	Why it's related
DRUPAL-CORE-2026-004 Drupal Core has a SQL Injection issue	Critical Known exploited	Also affects drupal/core
CVE-2020-28949 Multiple vulnerabilities through filename manipulation in Archive_Tar	High Known exploited	Also affects drupal/core
CVE-2020-13671 Drupal core Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type	High Known exploited	Also affects drupal/core
CVE-2019-6340 Drupal Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability	High Known exploited	Also affects drupal/core
CVE-2018-7600 Drupal Core Remote Code Execution Vulnerability	Critical Known exploited	Also affects drupal/core
DRUPAL-CORE-2026-016 The Navigation module doesn't sufficiently sanitize certain attributes, which can lead to a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability.	Not rated yet	Also affects drupal/core
DRUPAL-CORE-2026-015 The Drupal core Link module provides a field type that can be used for internal and external URLs.	Not rated yet	Also affects drupal/core
DRUPAL-CORE-2026-014 A remote code execution vulnerability exists within the Field UI module in Drupal core.	Not rated yet	Also affects drupal/core

Credits: Alex Pott, David Rothstein, Heine Deelstra, Jasper Mattsson

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