HighFix available
shellinabox — security advisory
libhttp/url.c in shellinabox through 2.20 has an implementation flaw in the HTTP request parsing logic. By sending a crafted multipart/form-data HTTP request, an attacker could exploit this to force shellinaboxd into an infinite loop, exhausting available CPU resources and taking the service down.
- Products
- shellinabox
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 2.21
- CVEs
- CVE-2018-16789
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 00:28 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
libhttp/url.c in shellinabox through 2.20 has an implementation flaw in the HTTP request parsing logic. By sending a crafted multipart/form-data HTTP request, an attacker could exploit this to force shellinaboxd into an infinite loop, exhausting available CPU resources and taking the service down.
osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16789
shellinabox
Fixed versions: 2.21
shellinabox
Fixed versions: 2.21
shellinabox
Fixed versions: 2.21
Complete source record
{
"id": "3cba92ccbd71e248a58cc1592ece5f61736e6abf68931ae83aea197551095e96",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16789",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16789",
"summary": "libhttp/url.c in shellinabox through 2.20 has an implementation flaw in the HTTP request parsing logic. By sending a crafted multipart/form-data HTTP request, an attacker could exploit this to force shellinaboxd into an infinite loop, exhausting available CPU resources and taking the service down.",
"evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16789",
"products": [
{
"name": {
"value": "shellinabox",
"evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "2.21",
"evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "shellinabox",
"evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "2.21",
"evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
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"evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
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"evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
}
],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16789",
"aliases": [
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],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
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"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
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}
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"package": {
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"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/shellinabox?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
"ecosystem": "Debian:12"
},
"database_specific": {
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"ecosystem_specific": {
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{
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"package": {
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"ecosystem": "Debian:13"
},
"database_specific": {
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},
"ecosystem_specific": {
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},
{
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],
"package": {
"name": "shellinabox",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/shellinabox?arch=source&distro=forky",
"ecosystem": "Debian:14"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16789.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "low"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-23T18:03:19.792048273Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2018-16789"
],
"references": [
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-16789"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2018-16789",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 421171,
"published_at": "2019-03-21T16:00:22.547+00:00"
}