PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief
CVE-2016-10033 PHP CVE debrief
CVE-2016-10033 is a command injection vulnerability in PHPMailer, an open-source PHP mail component. CISA lists it in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, which means affected environments should treat it as a high-priority remediation item. The supplied CISA metadata sets the mitigation due date to 2025-07-28.
- Vendor
- PHP
- Product
- PHPMailer
- CVSS
- Unknown
- CISA KEV
- Listed
- Original CVE published
- 2025-07-07
- Original CVE updated
- 2025-07-07
- Advisory published
- 2025-07-07
- Advisory updated
- 2025-07-07
Who should care
PHP application owners, security teams, and maintainers who use PHPMailer directly or through bundled dependencies. This is especially important for internet-facing applications and shared hosting environments where PHPMailer is embedded in third-party code.
Technical summary
The source corpus identifies this issue as a PHPMailer command injection vulnerability. CISA’s KEV entry indicates known exploitation and directs affected organizations to apply vendor mitigations, follow applicable CISA guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Defensive priority
High — this is a CISA KEV-listed vulnerability, so affected deployments should be prioritized ahead of the 2025-07-28 due date in the supplied metadata.
Recommended defensive actions
- Inventory applications and packages that include or depend on PHPMailer.
- Confirm whether deployed PHPMailer instances are affected using vendor and project guidance.
- Apply the vendor-recommended mitigation or upgrade path referenced by CISA; if mitigations are unavailable, discontinue use of the affected component.
- Follow applicable CISA BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services where relevant.
- Validate remediation in staging and monitor affected applications for abnormal behavior after changes.
Evidence notes
This debrief is based on the supplied CISA KEV source item and its metadata, plus the linked official CVE/NVD records. The source item identifies the vulnerability as "PHPMailer Command Injection Vulnerability," marks it as KEV-listed, and provides a mitigation due date of 2025-07-28. No CVSS score or severity was provided in the supplied corpus.
Sources and references
Verified primary and authoritative sources
-
CVE-2016-10033 CVE Program record
Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified
URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-10033
CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.
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CVE-2016-10033 NVD vulnerability detail
Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified
URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10033
NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.
-
CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified
URL: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency - Official CISA catalog of vulnerabilities known to be exploited in the wild.
Supplemental references
-
Source item URL
Unverified legacy reference
URL: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/feeds/known_exploited_vulnerabilities.json
cisa_kev
Methodology and review provenance
AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.