CVE-2018-25169
Published: 06 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2018-25169 is a high-severity Initialization of a Resource with an Insecure Default (CWE-1188) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 25.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) and SC-6 (Resource Availability).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2018-25169 is a denial of service vulnerability in AMPPS 2.7. The flaw allows remote attackers to crash the service by sending malformed data to the default HTTP port. Attackers can establish multiple socket connections and transmit invalid payloads, exhausting server resources and causing service unavailability. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) and maps to CWE-1188.
Remote attackers can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low complexity and no privileges or user interaction required. By repeatedly opening socket connections to the HTTP port and sending crafted invalid data, they can overwhelm the server, resulting in a crash and complete denial of service that renders the AMPPS service unavailable.
Advisories and proof-of-concept exploits are documented in references including Exploit-DB (https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45850) and Vulncheck (https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/ampps-denial-of-service-via-malformed-socket-connection). The CVE was published on 2026-03-06T13:15:58.057.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2018-21624
Vulnerability details
AMPPS 2.7 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows remote attackers to crash the service by sending malformed data to the default HTTP port. Attackers can establish multiple socket connections and transmit invalid payloads to exhaust server resources and…
more
cause service unavailability.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct remote exploitation of public-facing HTTP service via malformed data to achieve application DoS through vulnerability trigger.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly protects against denial-of-service events like resource exhaustion from multiple malformed socket connections and invalid payloads.
Ensures resource availability by allocating and prioritizing resources to mitigate exhaustion attacks via repeated connections.
Validates information inputs to block malformed data from causing server crashes and service unavailability.