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NVD / CVE Program· CNA eclipse

CVE-2018-12543: In Eclipse Mosquitto versions 1.5 to 1.5.2 inclusive, if a message is published to Mosquitto that has a topic starting with $, but that is…

HighCVSS 7.5 · v3.0—No exploit Fix available

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Plan (action score 41/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 36% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 98.4% of all records.
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: mosquitto (Alpine:v3.10) 1.5.3-r0.

Add it to your regular patch cycle. Upgrade to mosquitto (Alpine:v3.10) 1.5.3-r0 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In Eclipse Mosquitto versions 1.5 to 1.5.2 inclusive, if a message is published to Mosquitto that has a topic starting with $, but that is not $SYS, e.g. $test/test, then an assert is triggered that should otherwise not be reachable and Mosquitto will exit.

Published
Nov 15, 2018
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
36.0% · 98th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

41

Plan

Add it to your regular patch cycle.

CVSS
30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
11 / 30 · 36.0%

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2018-12543

When you'll hear from us

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  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
eclipsemosquitto

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (eclipse). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • The Eclipse Foundation Eclipse Mosquitto

    • 1.5 and later · before unspecifiedaffected
    • unspecified and later · up to and including 1.5.2affected

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • eclipse mosquitto1.5.0 and later · up to 1.5.2 inclusive

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Alpine:v3.10mosquittofrom 1.5.0 · before 1.5.3-r01.5.3-r0

Same product

eclipse: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2024-10525Eclipse Mosquito: Heap Buffer Overflow in my_subscribe_callback
    46Plan
  • CVE-2018-12551When Eclipse Mosquitto version 1.0 to 1.5.5 (inclusive) is configured to use a password file for authentication, any malformed data in the…
    32Monitor
  • CVE-2018-12550When Eclipse Mosquitto version 1.0 to 1.5.5 (inclusive) is configured to use an ACL file, and that ACL file is empty, or contains only…
    32Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2017-7653Jun 5, 2018 · The Eclipse Mosquitto broker up to version 1.4.15 does not reject strings that are not valid UTF-8.
    21Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2017-7654Jun 5, 2018 · In Eclipse Mosquitto 1.4.15 and earlier, a Memory Leak vulnerability was found within the Mosquitto Broker.
    31Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2018-20145Dec 13, 2018 · Eclipse Mosquitto 1.5.x before 1.5.5 allows ACL bypass: if the option per_listener_settings was set to true, and the default listener was…
    30Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
alpine:mosquitto1.5.3-r0 · Alpine:v3.10Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Not on record for this CVE: patch commit or PR link · researcher credit · variant or chain candidate · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-617 · Reachable Assertion

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records