Threats / MongoDB / CVE-2019-10758
CVE-2019-10758
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
MongoDB mongo-express vulnerability
mongo-express before 0.54.0 allows remote code execution through endpoints using the toBSON method, enabling unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An attacker can exploit deserialization flaws in mongo-express request handling to achieve remote code execution. The vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild and poses critical risk to exposed MongoDB management interfaces.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-12-104EPSS 0.84845 (verify live)5Exploit Weaponized · public PoC6CVSS 9.9 (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
607 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 2021-12-10).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.84845 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.9 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: MongoDB, mongo-express. 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.
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 717 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 public proof-of-concept / detection template). Catalog entries: nuclei template. 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 identify an exposed mongo-express instance and craft a malicious request targeting a toBSON endpoint.
Business
An attacker gains code execution on the database administration server, potentially compromising all MongoDB data and infrastructure.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the mongo-express process to establish persistence or pivot to other systems.
Business
The organization loses control of its database layer, risking data theft, corruption, or destruction across dependent applications.
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