CVE-2018-12551: eclipse mosquitto
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2018-12551 is a high (CVSS 8.1) vulnerability in eclipse mosquitto. EPSS estimates a 1.47% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 73.4% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.
Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 3 · Related 1Timeline
- 27-03-2019PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 05-08-2024Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
When Eclipse Mosquitto version 1.0 to 1.5.5 (inclusive) is configured to use a password file for authentication, any malformed data in the password file will be treated as valid. This typically means that the malformed data becomes a username and no password. If this occurs, clients can circumvent authentication and get access to the broker by using the malformed username. In particular, a blank line will be treated as a valid empty username. Other security measures are unaffected. Users who have only used the mosquitto_passwd utility to create and modify their password files are unaffected by this vulnerability.
CVSS metrics
5 scores · 4 sources · 2 versions- OSV · AlpineEcosystem advisory · calculated8.1HighCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated8.1HighCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated8.1HighCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
1.47%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
73%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
0.00 pp
From 1.47% on 19-09-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogsNot in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.
Public exploits
1 foundExploit Reference (bugs.eclipse.org)
Maturity: unknown
Weaknesses
CWE · root cause- CWE-703Improper Check or Handling of Exceptional ConditionsThe product does not properly anticipate or handle exceptional conditions that rarely occur during normal operation of the product.
- CWE-287Improper AuthenticationWhen an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct.
Affected systems
Alpine1 product
- mosquitto≥ 1.0, < 1.5.6-r0 | ≥ 1.0, < 1.4.15-r1 | ≥ 1.0, < 1.4.15-r4
Debian1 product
- mosquitto< 1.5.6-1
Eclipse1 product
- mosquitto≥ 1.0, ≤ 1.5.5
The eclipse foundation1 product
- eclipse mosquitto≥ 1.0, < unspecified | ≥ unspecified, ≤ 1.5.5
Ubuntu1 product
- mosquitto< 1.4.8-1ubuntu0.16.04.5 | < 1.4.15-2ubuntu0.18.04.1
5 vendors · 5 products
