Reference page — cumulative record through Tuesday, October 20, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2016-10033

CVE-2016-10033CRITICAL

n/a n/a — PHP PHPMailer

  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS    %ile   KEV
   N   L   N   N  U  H  H  H    9.8   .9971   100.0   YES

AFFECTED
  Product  Versions  Fixed
  n/a      n/a –     —

TIMELINE
  Dec 22  Reserved by mitre
  Dec 30  Published (CNA: mitre)
  Jul 7   Added to CISA KEV, remediation due 2025-07-28

CWE-88 · CNA: mitre · CVSS v3.1 · 22 references · KEV due July 28, 2025

Description

The mailSend function in the isMail transport in PHPMailer before 5.2.18 might allow remote attackers to pass extra parameters to the mail command and consequently execute arbitrary code via a \" (backslash double quote) in a crafted Sender property.

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
Date	Event	Detail
December 22, 2016	Reserved	Reserved by mitre
December 30, 2016	Published	Published (CNA: mitre)
July 7, 2025	KEV ADDED	Added to CISA KEV, remediation due 2025-07-28

Affected

Affected products and packages — 1 row
Vendor	Product / Package	Ecosystem	Version introduced	Fixed
n/a	n/a	—	n/a	—

Weaknesses

CWE-88

References (22)

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/140291/PHPMailer-Remote-Code-Execution.html [x_refsource_MISC]
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/140350/PHPMailer-Sendmail-Argument-Injection.html [x_refsource_MISC]
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Dec/78 [mailing-list, x_refsource_FULLDISC]
http://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/multi/http/phpmailer_arg_injection [x_refsource_MISC]
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/539963/100/0/threaded [mailing-list, x_refsource_BUGTRAQ]
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95108 [vdb-entry, x_refsource_BID]
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1037533 [vdb-entry, x_refsource_SECTRACK]
https://developer.joomla.org/security-centre/668-20161205-phpmailer-security-advisory.html [x_refsource_CONFIRM]
https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/releases/tag/v5.2.18 [x_refsource_CONFIRM]
https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/About-the-CVE-2016-10033-and-CVE-2016-10045-vulnerabilities [x_refsource_CONFIRM]
https://legalhackers.com/advisories/PHPMailer-Exploit-Remote-Code-Exec-CVE-2016-10033-Vuln.html [x_refsource_MISC]
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2016-10033 [government-resource]
https://www.drupal.org/psa-2016-004 [x_refsource_CONFIRM]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40968/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40969/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40970/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40974/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40986/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41962/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41996/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/42024/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/42221/ [exploit, x_refsource_EXPLOIT-DB]

Authoritative record: CVE-2016-10033 at cve.org

Weaknesses: CWE-88

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2016-10033 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Tuesday, October 20, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.