CVE-2018-25193
Published: 06 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2018-25193 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-2018-25193 is a denial of service vulnerability in Mongoose Web Server version 6.9. The flaw enables remote attackers to crash the service by establishing multiple socket connections to the default port and sending malformed data, which exhausts server resources and leads to service unavailability. It is classified under CWE-1188 with 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), highlighting its high impact on availability.
Remote, unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. By repeatedly creating socket connections and transmitting malformed data, they can overwhelm the server, causing it to crash and deny service to legitimate users.
Advisories detail the issue, including a Vulncheck advisory on the denial of service via socket connections and an Exploit-DB entry (https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45819) demonstrating exploitation. Practitioners should consult these references for additional technical details and mitigation guidance, such as updating to a patched version of Mongoose if available.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2018-21646
Vulnerability details
Mongoose Web Server 6.9 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows remote attackers to crash the service by establishing multiple socket connections. Attackers can repeatedly create connections to the default port and send malformed data to exhaust server resources…
more
and cause service unavailability.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct remote exploitation of public-facing web server leading to application-level resource exhaustion and DoS.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly protects against denial-of-service attacks by limiting effects of resource exhaustion from multiple socket connections and malformed data in Mongoose Web Server.
Safeguards system processing and communication resources from unauthorized depletion caused by repeated socket connections leading to service crashes.
Requires timely remediation of the specific flaw in Mongoose Web Server 6.9 through patching to eliminate the vulnerability exploited by socket-based DoS attacks.