CVE-2018-16090
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 · uneditedIn System Management Module (SMM) versions prior to 1.06, the SMM certificate creation and parsing logic is vulnerable to post-authentication command injection.
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 confidenceThe System Management Module (SMM) versions prior to 1.06 contain a command injection vulnerability in the certificate creation and parsing logic. An authenticated attacker can exploit this by submitting malicious certificate data that gets processed by the SMM, allowing arbitrary command execution on the underlying system.
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< 1.06CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 Lenovo SMM presenceLocate the System Management Module by checking server hardware documentation, IPMI interface, or Lenovo XClarity Administrator for ThinkSystem servers. Note the SMM is typically embedded on server motherboard or available as a plugin module.Affected if The system uses a Lenovo System Management Module for out-of-band management
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Check SMM firmware versionAccess the SMM web interface and navigate to Firmware Update or About page, or use IPMI command: ipmitool -I lanplus -H <SMM_IP> -U <user> -P <pass> raw command to retrieve firmware version. Compare against version 1.06.Affected if SMM firmware version is below 1.06
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Verify SMM management interface accessibilityCheck if the SMM web interface (default port 443/80) or IPMI over LAN is enabled and reachable on the network. Review firewall rules and network segmentation for the management network.Affected if SMM management interface is network-accessible beyond trusted management VLAN
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Review SMM audit logs for certificate activityExamine SMM event logs for certificate upload, import, or creation events. Look for any unexpected or unauthorized certificate-related operations that may indicate exploitation attempts.Affected if Suspicious certificate operations appear in logs from untrusted accounts
A system is affected if it runs Lenovo System Management Module firmware prior to version 1.06 and has the SMM management interface network-accessible, allowing authenticated attackers to inject commands via malicious certificate data.
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 data1.06
Upgrade the SMM firmware/software to version 1.06 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, restrict network access to the SMM management interface to trusted personnel only and monitor for suspicious certificate upload activity.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-2018-16090 — 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-2018-16090 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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