Cyber Posture

CVE-2013-10073

HighPublic PoC

Published: 30 October 2025

Published
30 October 2025
Modified
06 November 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0144 80.8th percentile
Risk Priority 18 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Description

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

Security Summary

CVE-2013-10073 is a shell command injection vulnerability (CWE-78) affecting Nagios XI versions prior to 2012R1.6, specifically in the Auto-Discovery tool. The flaw arises because user-controlled input is passed directly to a shell without adequate sanitization or argument quoting, enabling command execution. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating high severity due to its potential for significant impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

An authenticated attacker with access to the discovery functionality can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary commands with the privileges of the Nagios XI application service, potentially leading to full system compromise depending on the service's permissions.

Mitigation details are available in the Nagios XI changelog at https://www.nagios.com/changelog/nagios-xi/ and the Vulncheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nagios-xi-auto-discovery-shell-command-injection, which cover patches and remediation steps; affected users should upgrade to Nagios XI 2012R1.6 or later.

Details

CWE(s)
CWE-78

Affected Products

nagios
nagios xi
2012 · ≤ 2012

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1059.004 Unix Shell Execution
Adversaries may abuse Unix shell commands and scripts for execution.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
Why these techniques?

Shell command injection in network-accessible Nagios XI Auto-Discovery tool (PR:L) enables exploitation of public-facing application (T1190), Unix Shell execution (T1059.004), and privilege escalation (T1068).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

References