CVE•Published 2025-08-20•Modified 2026-07-15•1 article on news•6 live references•NVD data
CVE-2010-20103Proftpd · Proftpd
Vulnerability data via NVD (ingested)
CVSS v3.1
9.8
CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS percentile
91
Exploit Prediction Scoring System · top 9% of all CVEs
Weaknesses (CWE)
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.
Timeline
Published 2025-08-20
Modified 2026-07-15
External references
Search for exposed instances
Shodan + Censys queries derived from NVD's CPE data. The vuln tag catches assets Shodan has explicitly linked to this CVE; the product / banner fingerprints find exposed instances even when the vuln tag was never applied (which is common).
Shodan · vuln tag472 hosts
vuln:CVE-2010-20103Hosts Shodan has explicitly fingerprinted as vulnerable.
Shodan · product + version
product:"Proftpd Proftpd" version:"1.3.3"Version-pinned fingerprint from NVD's first vulnerable CPE.
Shodan · banner/body mention
http.html:"Proftpd"HTTP body or banner mentions "Proftpd" — catches deploys Shodan didn't identify as a product.
More intel sources (5)
Shodan report
vuln:CVE-2010-20103Country / ASN / product breakdown for the vuln query.
Censys
vulnerabilities.cve_id: CVE-2010-20103Censys host search filtered to this CVE id.
grep.app
CVE-2010-20103Public source-code mentions — fast PoC discovery.
GitHub code
CVE-2010-20103GitHub code search for direct mentions.
Google dork
"CVE-2010-20103" exploit -site:nvd.nist.govWrite-ups and news, NVD excluded.
Known PoCs on GitHub
No public proof-of-concept repositories found for CVE-2010-20103 on GitHub.