CVE-2023-5839

Local privilege escalation via shared PHP-FPM identity

Published Oct 29, 2023 · Updated Sep 6, 2024

Privilege chaining in Hestia Control Panel before 1.8.9 allows local users to escalate privileges through shared PHP-FPM pools. The default www.conf and dummy.conf pools ran PHP as www-data, allowing hosted PHP code to cross account boundaries; dangerous execution functions also remained enabled. Exploitation requires local low-privileged code execution in a hosted PHP context and can reach administrative or other user privileges.

CVSS severity8.8
High
EPSS probability0.29%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Privilege chaining in Hestia Control Panel before 1.8.9 allows local users to escalate privileges through shared PHP-FPM pools. The default www.conf and dummy.conf pools ran PHP as www-data, allowing hosted PHP code to cross account boundaries; dangerous execution functions also remained enabled. Exploitation requires local low-privileged code execution in a hosted PHP context and can reach administrative or other user privileges.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-5839
Published
Oct 29, 2023
Updated
Sep 6, 2024
Vendor
Hestia Control Panel
Product
Hestia Control Panel
Classifications
CWE-268, T1068
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Oct 29, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Sep 6, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=0 <1.8.9
  2. Affected versionversion=unspecified <1.8.9

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Hestia Control Panel · Hestia Control Panelversion=0 <1.8.9; version=unspecified <1.8.9

Published CVSS scores

7.8NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
8.8huntr.devCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-268Privilege Chaining
T1068Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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