CVE-2016-6195

Exploitation likely. EPSS gives it a 68% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. A vendor fix is available.

CVSS 3.09.8Critical EPSS percentile99th68% chance in 30 days CISA KEVNot listedNo confirmed exploitation
No public exploit known FixVendor fixNo build named by the sources

Published 2016-08-30Updated 2026-05-06Sources: CVE.org, NVD

NVD CVE.org

What to do

The vendor has published a fix. Version details are below where the sources state them.

VbulletinAffected: ≤ 4.2.2Upgrade to: after 4.2.2Stated by: NVD

Versions as the sources state them. Full version matrix after sign-in

Steps

Written by AI from the record

Check your vBulletin version and Patch Level in the administration area or with your hosting provider.
If you use vBulletin 4.2.2, upgrade to Patch Level 5; if you use 4.2.3, upgrade to Patch Level 1.
Until upgraded, ask your host or IT provider to restrict public access to forumrunner/request.php if ForumRunner is not needed.
Review forum administrator accounts, recent database changes, and unusual activity after updating.

Vendor advisory Some work to apply

Check it yourselfA free Nuclei and OpenVAS check exists for this CVE. Run it against your hosts.Is your organisation exposed?Discuss checks for your systems with a specialist. Scope is agreed before testing.

What it is

From the CVE record

SQL injection vulnerability in forumrunner/includes/moderation.php in vBulletin before 4.2.2 Patch Level 5 and 4.2.3 before Patch Level 1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the postids parameter to forumrunner/request.php, as exploited in the wild in July 2016.

In plain language

Written by AI from the record

If you run vBulletin 4.2.2 before Patch Level 5 or vBulletin 4.2.3 before Patch Level 1, act soon because an outsider may be able to take control of information in your forum’s database.

Unauthenticated SQL injection in vBulletin’s ForumRunner moderation endpoint allows attacker-controlled postids input to execute arbitrary SQL commands.

If you're affected

Forum database takeover
Member data exposure
Content manipulation
Forum outage
Ransomware risk

What is it

This is a flaw in vBulletin, software used to run an online community forum. It can let an outsider send a specially crafted request that changes or reads database information, like giving someone an unapproved master key to the filing room behind your forum.

Who is affected

This matters to you if you run vBulletin to host a customer, member, or staff forum. The affected releases are the older 4.2.2 and 4.2.3 releases named above. The issue is exposed through the ForumRunner request feature.

How urgent is it

This is an AMBER issue: it is a critical weakness with a high predicted likelihood of attack, but the supplied findings do not confirm current real-world exploitation. Prioritize the update promptly, especially if your forum is publicly accessible, and use the temporary access restriction if an upgrade must wait.

What to do — in detail

Confirm the installed vBulletin release and Patch Level, then determine whether forumrunner/request.php is publicly reachable and whether ForumRunner is in use. Remediate vBulletin 4.2.2 by applying Patch Level 5, or vBulletin 4.2.3 by applying Patch Level 1; test the update in a staging copy first if your forum has custom themes, extensions, or integrations. If patching is delayed, restrict access to forumrunner/request.php at the web server or firewall when ForumRunner is not required. No CISA KEV remediation due date applies because this CVE is not listed in KEV. After remediation, review web-server logs for unusual requests to forumrunner/request.php, database errors, unexpected administrator changes, and unexplained forum content changes.

Technical context

CVSS v3.0 is 9.8 Critical (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). The weakness is CWE-89 SQL injection: the postids parameter supplied to forumrunner/request.php reaches forumrunner/includes/moderation.php in a way that permits arbitrary SQL execution. EPSS predicts a 35.7% likelihood and places the CVE in the 98th percentile, although the trend is falling. CISA KEV does not list this CVE. Exploit intelligence contains a detection template only; the supplied findings do not establish a currently weaponized public exploit.

This is a general assessment based on public vulnerability data. It does not account for your specific infrastructure — when in doubt, consult a security specialist.

Exploitation

Where each signal puts this CVE on the scale from published to confirmed exploited.

EPSS99th

CISA KEV

Not in the catalog. CISA has not confirmed exploitation.

Public exploits

No public exploit or proof of concept found in the sources we track.

EPSS

68% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the 99th percentile of scored CVEs.

Exploit Prediction Scoring System, FIRST.org. A probability, not a confirmation.

Lifecycle

24 events over 3676 days, from the signal feeds we watch.

2026-09-23EPSS band changemoderate → highepss band change
2026-09-21EPSS band changehigh → moderateepss band change
2026-09-06EPSS band changemoderate → highepss band change
2026-09-05EPSS band changehigh → moderateepss band change
2026-08-31EPSS band changemoderate → highepss band change
2026-08-29EPSS band changehigh → moderate

Affected products

vbulletincommercialaka vbgooglemap, mapi
- vbulletinOn-premWeb & CMS Plugins / forum-wiki

And 1 more affected product. See all after sign-in

Technical detail

CVSS 3.0 vector

Open in the CVSS calculator

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

Scored 9.8 by NVD.

How it is reached

Attack Vector NetworkExploitable remotely over the network without any special conditions
Attack Complexity LowNo special conditions — the attack can be reliably reproduced
Privileges Required NoneNo authentication required — anyone can exploit this
User Interaction NoneNo user interaction needed — fully automated exploitation

Scope

Scope UnchangedImpact is limited to the vulnerable component itself

Impact if exploited

Confidentiality HighTotal information disclosure — all data in the component is compromised
Integrity HighTotal loss of integrity — attacker can modify any data in the component
Availability HighTotal denial of service — the component is completely unavailable