CVE-2018-11615
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 · uneditedThis vulnerability allows remote attackers to deny service on vulnerable installations of npm mosca 2.8.1. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the processing of topics. A crafted regular expression can cause the broker to crash. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to deny access to the target system. Was ZDI-CAN-6306.
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 · high confidenceThis is a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) vulnerability in the mosca MQTT broker version 2.8.1. The flaw exists in topic processing where a crafted regular expression sent by an attacker causes the broker to crash, resulting in denial of service. No authentication is required to exploit this issue.
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= 2.8.1CVSS 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:3.0/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify mosca installationLocate the mosca MQTT broker installation and determine its version using npm (npm list mosca) or by checking package.json dependenciesAffected if mosca version is exactly 2.8.1
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Confirm running mosca processCheck for running mosca broker processes using process monitoring tools or by querying the MQTT port (typically 1883)Affected if mosca version 2.8.1 is actively running as a broker service
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Verify MQTT port exposureCheck if the MQTT port is listening and accessible (netstat or similar tool on port 1883)Affected if The mosca broker port is exposed and accepting connections without authentication
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Assess topic subscription exposureDetermine if external clients can send topic subscription requests to the brokerAffected if Unauthenticated topic subscriptions can be received by the vulnerable mosca instance
You are affected only if mosca version 2.8.1 is running and its MQTT port is accessible to send crafted regex-based topic subscriptions.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpgrade mosca to a patched version if available, or implement input validation/rate limiting on incoming topic subscriptions to mitigate ReDoS attacks. Consider migrating to an actively maintained MQTT broker if no patch is released.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-11615 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-11615 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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