CVE-2010-20103
A malicious backdoor was embedded in the official ProFTPD 1.3.3c source tarball distributed between November 28 and December 2, 2010.
Does this matter?
EPSS puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 13.8%, higher than 97% of all known CVEs. Patch or mitigate before the next change window.
Description
A malicious backdoor was embedded in the official ProFTPD 1.3.3c source tarball distributed between November 28 and December 2, 2010. The backdoor implements a hidden FTP command trigger that, when invoked, causes the server to execute arbitrary shell commands with root privileges. This allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to run any OS command on the FTP server host.
- CVSS 4.0
- 9.3 CRITICALCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
- EPSS
- 13.76% probability · 97th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-912
- Affected
- proftpd/proftpd
- Source
- disclosure@vulncheck.com
EPSS moved from 13.7% on 10 October 2026 to 13.8% on 1 November 2026. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”.
References
- http://www.proftpd.org/Product
- https://advisories.checkpoint.com/defense/advisories/public/2011/cpai-2010-151.html/Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/proftpd/proftpdProduct
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/unix/ftp/proftpd_133c_backdoor.rbExploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://web.archive.org/web/20111107212129/http://rsync.proftpd.org/Release Notes
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15662Exploit, VDB Entry
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/16921Exploit, VDB Entry
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/proftpd-backdoor-command-executionThird Party Advisory
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/unix/ftp/proftpd_133c_backdoor.rbExploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15662Exploit, VDB Entry
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/16921Exploit, VDB Entry
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.