Vulnerability report

Active exploitation observed Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2017-9841

PHPUnit

PHPUnit

Watch CVE-2017-9841 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.8 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Observed in sensors
EPSS
100.0%
First observed
07 Jul 2026
Last observed
09 Oct 2026

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2017-9841 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting PHPUnit. Util/PHP/eval-stdin.php in PHPUnit before 4.8.28 and 5.x before 5.6.3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code via HTTP POST data...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian sensors observed exploitation attempts with confirmed confidence. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

PHPUnit.

What should we do?

Patch immediately, validate internet-facing exposure, and monitor for matching requests.

Overview

PHPUnit

Util/PHP/eval-stdin.php in PHPUnit before 4.8.28 and 5.x before 5.6.3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code via HTTP POST data beginning with a "

View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
27 Jun 2017
Exploitation Reported
15 Feb 2022
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

nuclei_scanner php cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 15 Feb 2022

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Active exploitation observed

Previdian sensor

First observed 17 Aug 2026

Previdian first observed exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability in our honeypot sensors.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 06 Jan 2020

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2022-02-15 00:00 UTC
The Shadowserver 2026-05-31 00:00 UTC
Previdian Sensors 2026-08-17 15:45 UTC

Operational indicators for this CVE are listed under Detection.

Sensor telemetry

First-party evidence of exploitation activity

Previdian sensors recorded exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability. The cards and chart show volume, unique attackers, and daily activity.

231,568

Attempts observed

1,376

Unique attacker IPs

75

Attacker countries

AE · AM · AR · AT · AU · BD · BE · BG · BR · CA · CH · CM · CN · CO · DE · DK · DO · EE · ER · ES · ET · FI · FR · GB · GE · GT · HK · HU · ID · IN · IQ · IR · IS · IT · JP · KR · KZ · LT · LU · LV · LY · MA · MD · MW · MX · MY · NG · NL · NO · NZ · PA · PE · PH · PK · PL · PT · PY · RO · RS · RU · SA · SC · SE · SG · SI · TH · TR · TW · UA · US · UZ · VN · YE · ZA · ZM

79

Sensors observed

CVE-2017-9841 exploitation attempts over the last 85 days

Daily events observed by Previdian sensors

Updated 09 Oct 2026

0
356
1,752
1,774
1,703
1,782
1,090
1,143
1,143
1,510
1,419
829
724
1,422
1,739
1,586
2,096
1,795
1,621
2,096
1,800
4,950
2,093
1,623
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
753
1,001
642
927
2,074
2,556
2,590
4,836
2,591
2,584
1,936
2,520
2,388
2,700
2,971
3,055
3,836
3,418
2,599
2,760
3,438
2,685
2,470
2,707
3,161
3,284
3,517
2,684
3,294
3,223
2,505
3,162
3,909
4,136
4,273
3,484
4,496
3,218
3,641
3,947
4,847
5,302
6,506
4,513
5,605
5,661
5,831
6,563
6,167
8,148
6,257
6,084
5,063
1,004
17 Jul 3 Aug 20 Aug 6 Sep 9 Oct

First observed 07 Jul 2026 · Last observed 09 Oct 2026

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Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
62
209
6

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Attacker IP Indicators

Attacker IP indicators observed · available in Pro and Enterprise.

Sensor-derived attacker IP indicators are available to Pro and Enterprise accounts under Detection and through the Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2017/CVE-2017-9841.yaml 25 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

9.8 Critical

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

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

EPSS

100.0%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') CWE-94

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 9.8 Critical

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

CVSS v2.0 7.5 High

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

PHPUnit - Remote Code Execution

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 15:32 UTC

    Observed by Previdian sensors

    Evidence-backed exploitation signal

  2. 16:46 UTC

    Indicators of compromise added (1376)

    Indicators of compromise recorded

  3. 14:20 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  4. 00:00 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Shadowserver

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  5. 00:00 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  6. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  7. 17:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  8. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2017-9841

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2017-9841",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.99999,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": true
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 231568, "sensors": 79 }
}