Tenda W18E 16.01.0.20 Diagnose protocol/targetDevice os command injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Tenda W18E 16.01.0.20. It has been rated as very critical. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component Diagnose. Performing a manipulation of the argument protocol/targetDevice results in os command injection. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2026-118238. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. Moreover, an exploit is present.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, was found in Tenda W18E 16.01.0.20. This affects an unknown function of the component Diagnose. The manipulation of the argument protocol/targetDevice with an unknown input leads to a os command injection vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-78. The product constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The Tenda W18E web management server is vulnerable to OS command injection via the "diagnose" packet-capture feature due to improper validation of JSON fields. An authenticated user can inject shell metacharacters into the protocol or targetDevice fields, which are later concatenated into a tcpdump command and executed with root privileges. This vulnerability can be exploited without authentication if the device is in a factory-reset state.

The advisory is shared at cushz.github.io. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-118238 since 10/27/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. Technical details and a exploit are known. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/30/2026). MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1202 for this issue.

The exploit is shared for download at cushz.github.io. It is declared as proof-of-concept.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Router Operating System

Vendor

• Tenda

Name

• W18E

Version

• 16.01.0.20

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.tenda.com.cn/

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Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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