Escan Anti VirusApplication · Escanav

CVE-2018-18388

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-12-20
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
eScan Agent Application (MWAGENT.EXE) 4.0.2.98 in MicroWorld Technologies eScan 14.0 allows remote or local attackers to execute arbitrary commands by sending a carefully crafted payload to TCP port 2222.

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 confidence

Command injection vulnerability in eScan Agent Application (MWAGENT.EXE) version 4.0.2.98 allows remote or local attackers to execute arbitrary commands by sending a crafted payload to TCP port 2222, which the agent service listens on.

MitigationApply available vendor patches or update to a patched version of eScan. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict network access to TCP port 2222 through firewalls or network segmentation 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
Escan Anti VirusApplication
Affected:= 14.0

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 checks

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

  1. Verify eScan Anti Virus is installed
    Check for eScan Anti Virus installation by looking in Add/Remove Programs (Windows) or checking for eScan installation directories (typically in C:\Program Files\eScan or C:\Program Files (x86)\eScan)
    Affected if eScan Anti Virus version 14.0 is installed on the system
  2. Confirm installed eScan version
    Open the eScan application interface and navigate to About or Help section to view the exact version number, or check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\eScan for DisplayVersion
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 14.0 (version 14.0.0.0 or similar 14.x releases)
  3. Check if MWAGENT.EXE process is running
    Open Task Manager or run 'tasklist | findstr MWAGENT' in command prompt to verify if the eScan Agent Application process (MWAGENT.EXE) is currently active
    Affected if MWAGENT.EXE process is running on the system
  4. Verify TCP port 2222 is listening
    Run 'netstat -ano | findstr :2222' or use PowerShell 'Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 2222' to check if port 2222 is in Listening state
    Affected if TCP port 2222 is open and listening, indicating the vulnerable agent service is active

If eScan Anti Virus version 14.0 is installed with MWAGENT.EXE running and listening on TCP port 2222, the environment is affected by CVE-2018-18388 and is vulnerable to command injection attacks via that port.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply available vendor patches or update to a patched version of eScan. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict network access to TCP port 2222 through firewalls or network segmentation to limit attack surface.

Fix this in Escan Anti Virus Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-18388 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-18388 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