{"id":28851,"date":"2017-01-05T18:01:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T10:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=28851"},"modified":"2023-04-06T19:18:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T11:18:34","slug":"phpmailer-flaws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/phpmailer-flaws\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Flaw in PHPMailer Allows Remote Exploits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>PHPMailer<\/strong>, one of the most <strong>popular open source PHP libraries in use today<\/strong>, has run into problems of its own as Polish security researcher Dawid Golunski of <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/legalhackers.com\/\">Legal Hacker<\/a>s has <strong><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/legalhackers.com\/advisories\/PHPMailer-Exploit-Remote-Code-Exec-CVE-2016-10033-Vuln.html\">discovered a critical vulnerability<\/a> that leaves it susceptible to remote exploits<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"recommended_top\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Read Also:<\/strong>\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/keeping-online-data-safe\/\">How You Are Helping Hackers Steal Your Data<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Specifics of the vulnerability in question (CVE-2016-10033) have yet to be revealed as Golunski is <strong>withholding technical details about the flaw<\/strong> due to how prevalent PHPMailer is.<\/p>\n<p>Golunski did reveal the nature of the flaw though, and it appears that the flaw would <strong>allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code remotely in the context of the web server<\/strong>. This would then compromise the target web application.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/phpmailer-flaws\/01-security-notices.jpg\" width=\"931\" height=\"603\" alt=\"security notices\"><\/figure>\n<p>In order to exploit this particular vulnerability, the attacker would<strong> target website components that send out emails with the help of a vulnerable version of the PHPMailer class<\/strong>. Such components include things like contact or feedback forms, registration forms, password email resets and many others.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, Golunski has since reported this vulnerability to the developers of PHPMailer, and <strong>the developers have since patched said vulnerability with <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/PHPMailer\/PHPMailer\" rel=\"noopener\">PHPMailer 5.2.18<\/a><\/strong>. As all version of PHPMailer prior to 5.2.18 are affected by this vulnerability, web administrators, and developers should update their PHPMailer as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/phpmailer-flaws\/02-security-version.jpg\" width=\"926\" height=\"154\" alt=\"security version\"><\/figure>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thehackernews.com\/2016\/12\/phpmailer-security.html?m=1\">The Hacker News<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"recommended_top\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Read Also:<\/strong>\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/best-php-frameworks\/\">10 PHP Frameworks For Developers \u2013 Best of<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PHPMailer, one of the most popular open source PHP libraries in use today, has run into problems of its own as Polish security researcher Dawid Golunski of Legal Hackers has discovered a critical vulnerability that leaves it susceptible to remote exploits. Specifics of the vulnerability in question (CVE-2016-10033) have yet to be revealed as Golunski&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3398,3976],"tags":[1319,4601],"topic":[4523,4521],"class_list":["entry-content","is-maxi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Critical Flaw in PHPMailer Allows Remote Exploits - Hongkiat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PHPMailer, one of the most popular open source PHP libraries in use today, has run into problems of its own as Polish security researcher Dawid Golunski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/phpmailer-flaws\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Critical Flaw in PHPMailer Allows Remote Exploits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PHPMailer, one of the most popular open source PHP libraries in use today, has run into problems of its own as Polish security researcher Dawid Golunski\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/phpmailer-flaws\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hongkiatcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-05T10:01:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-06T11:18:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/phpmailer-flaws\/01-security-notices.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/phpmailer-flaws\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/phpmailer-flaws\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sia\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/25661c0ca5beef807a38c0d038894641\"},\"headline\":\"Critical Flaw in PHPMailer Allows Remote Exploits\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-05T10:01:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-06T11:18:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/phpmailer-flaws\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":216,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/phpmailer-flaws\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/assets.hongkiat.com\\\/uploads\\\/phpmailer-flaws\\\/01-security-notices.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"PHP\",\"Security and Privacy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Internet\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/phpmailer-flaws\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/phpmailer-flaws\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/phpmailer-flaws\\\/\",\"name\":\"Critical Flaw in PHPMailer Allows Remote Exploits - 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