Threats / Adobe / CVE-2018-4939
CVE-2018-4939
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability
Adobe ColdFusion contains a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability allowing remote code execution. The flaw has been exploited in the wild.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
Attackers can exploit unsafe deserialization in ColdFusion to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. Active exploitation in the wild elevates risk for unpatched deployments.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-034EPSS 0.62913 (verify live)5CVSS 9.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
4 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 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.62913 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Adobe, ColdFusion. 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: yes · 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 1264 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.
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 craft a malicious serialized object and send it to a ColdFusion endpoint that deserializes untrusted input.
Business
An attacker gains remote code execution on the ColdFusion server, enabling data theft, system compromise, or lateral movement.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I leverage code execution to establish persistence and exfiltrate sensitive application data or credentials.
Business
Confidential business data, customer information, and authentication credentials are compromised, creating regulatory and reputational liability.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I use the compromised server as a pivot point to attack internal network resources and other systems.
Business
The breach scope expands beyond the initial ColdFusion instance, increasing incident response costs and business disruption.
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