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Vulnerability record · CVE-2018-7544 · published 16 March 2018

CVE-2018-7544: Openvpn vulnerability

Openvpn · Openvpn

A cross-protocol scripting issue was discovered in the management interface in OpenVPN through 2.4.5. When this interface is enabled over TCP without a password, and when no other clients are connected to this interface, attackers can execute arbitrary management commands, obtain sensitive information, or cause a denial of service (SIGTERM) by triggering XMLHttpRequest actions in a web browser. This is demonstrated by a multipart/form-data POST to http://localhost:23000 with a "signal SIGTERM" command in a TEXTAREA element. NOTE: The vendor disputes that this is a vulnerability. They state that this is the result of improper configuration of the OpenVPN instance rather than an intrinsic vulnerability, and now more explicitly warn against such configurations in both the management-interface documentation, and with a runtime warning

9.1 CVSS 3.0 Critical EPSS 1.8% · top 21.9% CWE-134 · CWE-134
9.1CVSS 3.0 base score, v2 6.4
1.8%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
2References, 2 tagged exploit
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

A cross-protocol scripting issue was discovered in the management interface in OpenVPN through 2.4.5. When this interface is enabled over TCP without a password, and when no other clients are connected to this interface, attackers can execute arbitrary management commands, obtain sensitive information, or cause a denial of service (SIGTERM) by triggering XMLHttpRequest actions in a web browser. This is demonstrated by a multipart/form-data POST to http://localhost:23000 with a "signal SIGTERM" command in a TEXTAREA element. NOTE: The vendor disputes that this is a vulnerability. They state that this is the result of improper configuration of the OpenVPN instance rather than an intrinsic vulnerability, and now more explicitly warn against such configurations in both the management-interface documentation, and with a runtime warning

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
http://blog.0xlabs.com/2018/03/openvpn-remote-information-disclosure.html ExploitThird Party Advisory
http://blog.0xlabs.com/2018/03/openvpn-remote-information-disclosure.html ExploitThird Party Advisory

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2018-7544), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.