Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This critical Drupal core flaw can let an unauthenticated remote attacker run code and compromise a vulnerable website. Successful exploitation could expose or alter data, disrupt service, and provide control of the site. Drupal reports exploitation in the wild, and CISA lists the vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Executive priority
Treat as an immediate remediation and incident-review priority for any Drupal 7.x or 8.x deployment. Because exploitation is documented and compromise can affect data and service availability, owners should rapidly identify exposed systems, update them, and investigate whether exploitation occurred before remediation.
Technical view
CVE-2018-7602 is a CWE-94 remote code execution vulnerability affecting multiple subsystems in Drupal 7.x and 8.x. Its CVSS 3.1 score is 9.8: network-accessible, low complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction, with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. It is related to SA-CORE-2018-002.
Likely exposure
Drupal 7.x or 8.x sites that have not followed SA-CORE-2018-004 guidance may be exposed, especially when reachable from untrusted networks. The supplied affected-version data is unspecified, so exact exposure cannot be determined from version numbers in this bundle alone.
Exploitation context
Active exploitation is confirmed by Drupal's advisory and supported by CISA KEV inclusion. The bundle also identifies public exploit references. This combination increases risk to unremediated systems, but the supplied evidence does not describe current campaign prevalence, targets, or attacker attribution.
Researcher notes
The source bundle establishes remote, unauthenticated code execution across multiple Drupal subsystems but does not specify exact affected or fixed version ranges. Use SA-CORE-2018-004 as the authoritative version and remediation reference. KEV status and Drupal's exploitation statement support confirmed in-the-wild activity; campaign details remain unestablished here.
Mitigation direction
- Follow Drupal SA-CORE-2018-004 guidance and apply the appropriate security update for the deployed branch.
- Confirm remediation also addresses the related SA-CORE-2018-002 vulnerability.
- Restrict untrusted access or isolate affected sites until vendor guidance is applied.
- Use Debian's applicable security update when Drupal is installed from affected Debian packages.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Drupal 7.x and 8.x installations, including externally reachable and forgotten sites.
- Compare each deployed core version with the fixed versions documented in SA-CORE-2018-004.
- Verify both SA-CORE-2018-002 and SA-CORE-2018-004 remediation requirements are satisfied.
- Review logs, file integrity, administrative accounts, and unexpected changes for evidence of prior compromise.
- Confirm updated sites remain operational and no vulnerable core copies persist in backups or deployment artifacts.
Public sources used
The source record changed after analysis: Material source record changed after analysis.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-94: Code execution behavior lookup
Code execution and unsafe deserialization weaknesses often justify reviewing execution behavior and process telemetry. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2018-7602 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.8 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- Yes
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CISA KEV status
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H3.95.9CISA-ADPVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
9.8CriticalVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- Added to KEVCISA-ADP
CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities metadata lists this CVE as known exploited.
- ADP timelineCISA-ADP
CVE-2018-7602 added to CISA KEV
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
- 2022-04-13T00:00:00.000Z: CVE-2018-7602 added to CISA KEV
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 44557CVE reference, drupal · exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB
- [debian-lts-announce] 20180426 [SECURITY] [DLA 1365-1] drupal7 security updateCVE reference, drupal · mailing-list, x_refsource_MLIST
- 44542CVE reference, drupal · exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB
- DSA-4180CVE reference, drupal · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_DEBIAN
- https://www.drupal.org/sa-core-2018-004CVE reference, drupal · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2018-7602CVE reference, CISA-ADP · government-resource
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.