What is CVE-2018-18656?

CVE-2018-18656 is a high-severity vulnerability in Purevpn, classified under Insufficiently Protected Credentials. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2018-10-26.

How severe is CVE-2018-18656?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2018-18656 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in Purevpn

CVE-2018-18656

The PureVPN client before 6.1.0 for Windows stores Login Credentials (username and password) in cleartext. The location of such files is %PROGRAMDATA%\purevpn\config\login.conf. Additionally, all local users can read this file.

Published 2018-10-26 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (27.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 27th percentile — 27.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Purevpn

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-522 — Insufficiently Protected Credentials

Public proof-of-concept exploits

SpiderLabs/cve_

References

www.trustwave.com/Resources/SpiderLabs-Blog/Credential-Leak-Flaws-in-Windows-Pu… (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-18656?: CVE-2018-18656 is a high-severity vulnerability in Purevpn, classified under Insufficiently Protected Credentials. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2018-10-26.
How severe is CVE-2018-18656?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2018-18656 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.