Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild High confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2018-9866

Global Management System (GMS)

SonicWall / Global Management System (GMS) · 8.1 and earlier

Watch CVE-2018-9866 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.8 · Critical
Confidence
High
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
4.5%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2018-9866 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting SonicWall Global Management System (GMS). A vulnerability in lack of validation of user-supplied parameters pass to XML-RPC calls on SonicWall Global...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is high. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

SonicWall / Global Management System (GMS) 8.1 and earlier.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Global Management System (GMS)

A vulnerability in lack of validation of user-supplied parameters pass to XML-RPC calls on SonicWall Global Management System (GMS) virtual appliance's, allow remote user to execute arbitrary code.

This vulnerability affected GMS version 8.1 and earlier.

SonicWall Affected
Global Management System (GMS)
8.1 and earlier
Published
03 Aug 2018
Exploitation Reported
26 Apr 2025
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

edge

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

The Shadowserver

Recorded 26 Apr 2025

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

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

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Source Added
The Shadowserver First 2025-04-26 00:00 UTC

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
0
0
0

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

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

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

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

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

4.5%

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

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command ('Command Injection') CWE-77

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 v3.0 9.8 Critical

CVSS:3.0/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

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 00:00 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  2. 20:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  3. 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-2018-9866

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2018-9866",
  "confidence": "High",
  "cvss_score": 9.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.04504,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}