Threats / Quest / CVE-2018-11138
CVE-2018-11138
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Quest KACE System Management Appliance vulnerability
An unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Quest KACE System Management Appliance allows anonymous users to execute arbitrary commands via an accessible PHP script.
Verdict
Today item, not a backlog item.
The vulnerability enables unauthenticated attackers to achieve remote code execution on affected appliances. Active exploitation and ransomware deployment have been observed in the wild, posing critical risk to organizations relying on this management platform.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
3 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-25), flagged for known ransomware use.
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.91931 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Quest, KACE System Management Appliance. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-78 OS Command Injection — weakness family: Injection.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
Identify and access the vulnerable download_agent_installer.php endpoint without authentication.
Business
Attacker gains initial foothold on critical infrastructure management system with no access controls required.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
Inject and execute arbitrary system commands through the accessible script parameter.
Business
Attacker achieves code execution with appliance privileges, compromising the entire managed environment.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
Deploy ransomware or lateral movement tools across the organization via the compromised management appliance.
Business
Organization experiences widespread encryption of assets and operational disruption across managed endpoints.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05