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CVE-2015-5243

32
FAUCET Score

CVE-2015-5243 describes a critical remote code execution vulnerability in phpWhois, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code through a specially crafted WHOIS record. With a CVSS v3 score of 9.8 (CRITICAL), this flaw has a low attack complexity and no user interaction required, leading to complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Despite its severity, there is no public exploit code available (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), it is not listed in CISA's KEV catalog, and it shows minimal community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 4.2.2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:phpwhois_project:phpwhois:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

9.8CRITICAL

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
6.19%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
92.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-24
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0619 is in the 87th percentile among its peer group of 36,829 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.3 Mastodon, and 2.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (2)

composerpatch availablevia ghsa
Product: jsmitty12/phpwhoisFixed in: 5.1.0
github_advisorypatch availablevia nvd_reference
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

composerGHSA-c95f-27gx-6vq9critical

phpWhois arbitrary code execution via a crafted whois record

May 14, 2022

References

blog.nettitude.com / uk/cve-2015-5243-phpwhois-remote-code-execution
Third Party Advisory
github.com / Gemorroj/phpwhois/commit/91c937e03c876ba1290b6de2a3ad953d2105fdd0
PatchThird Party Advisory
github.com / jsmitty12/phpWhois/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md
Release NotesThird Party Advisory
github.com / jsmitty12/phpWhois/issues/19
Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory
github.com / sbaresearch/advisories/tree/public/2018/SBA-ADV-20180425-01_phpWhois_Code_Execution
ExploitThird Party Advisory
github.com / sparc/phpWhois.org/commit/5cc572490c9053d46598ec9348a11e36a5a33a46
PatchVendor Advisory