Threats / Laravel / CVE-2018-15133
CVE-2018-15133
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Laravel Framework vulnerability
Laravel Framework contains a deserialization vulnerability (CWE-502) enabling remote command execution when an attacker possesses the application encryption key.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An authenticated attacker with access to the APP_KEY environment variable can exploit unsafe deserialization to achieve remote code execution on affected Laravel instances. This vulnerability has been observed in active exploitation.
CISA KEV Yes · 2024-01-164EPSS 0.76814 (verify live)5Exploit Weaponized · public PoC6CVSS 8.1 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
10 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 2024-01-16).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.76814 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 8.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Laravel, Laravel Framework. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data — weakness family: Injection.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 1986 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
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
I obtain or compromise the application's encryption key (APP_KEY) through environment variable exposure, configuration disclosure, or insider access.
Business
Exposure of encryption keys indicates inadequate secrets management and environmental security controls.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I craft a malicious serialized payload and inject it into a deserialization point within the Laravel application.
Business
Lack of input validation on deserialization operations creates a direct path to code execution.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I execute arbitrary commands on the server with the privileges of the web application process.
Business
Complete compromise of application integrity, confidentiality, and availability; potential lateral movement to backend systems.
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