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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2013-1816

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-11-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.19.4 / 1.20.3 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
MediaWiki before 1.19.4 and 1.20.x before 1.20.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) by sending a specially crafted request.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

MediaWiki versions before 1.19.4 and 1.20.x before 1.20.3 contain a vulnerability that allows remote attackers to crash the application via specially crafted requests. The vulnerability appears to be in request handling/parsing logic, likely involving malformed input that triggers an unhandled exception or resource exhaustion leading to application failure.

MitigationUpgrade MediaWiki to version 1.19.4, 1.20.3, or later to patch the vulnerability. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider placing the application behind a WAF or rate-limiting ingress requests to limit attack surface.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 6.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 18
MediawikiCMS
Affected:< 1.19.4>= 1.20.0, < 1.20.3

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check MediaWiki version via web interface
    Visit /wiki/MediaWiki.php?action=version on your server or look for 'MediaWiki' text in the page footer
    Affected if The version displayed is less than 1.19.4 or between 1.20.0 and 1.20.2 inclusive
  2. Check MediaWiki version via command line
    If you have shell access, examine the file 'includes/DefaultSettings.php' and look for '$wgVersion' variable
    Affected if The version value is less than 1.19.4 or between 1.20.0 and 1.20.2 inclusive
  3. Verify web server serves MediaWiki
    Confirm your web server (Apache, Nginx, etc.) is configured to serve the MediaWiki installation directory
    Affected if MediaWiki is accessible via HTTP/HTTPS and the version is vulnerable
  4. Check installed package version on Debian/Ubuntu
    Run 'dpkg -l mediawiki' or 'apt-cache policy mediawiki'
    Affected if The installed package version is before 1:1.19.4 or between 1:1.20.0 and 1:1.20.2
  5. Check installed package version on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
    Run 'rpm -q mediawiki' or 'yum info mediawiki'
    Affected if The installed package version is before the fixed version for your distribution

Your MediaWiki installation is affected if it is accessible as a web application and the version is below 1.19.4 or between 1.20.0 and 1.20.2 inclusive.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 1.19.4 / 1.20.3 or later
Fixed in 1.19.41.20.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade MediaWiki to version 1.19.4, 1.20.3, or later to patch the vulnerability. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider placing the application behind a WAF or rate-limiting ingress requests to limit attack surface.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,570
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,512.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-1816 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data