What is CVE-2018-20940?

CVE-2018-20940 is a low-severity vulnerability in Cpanel, classified under Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition). CVSS score: 3.3/10. Published 2019-08-01.

How severe is CVE-2018-20940?

Low severity. CVSS v3 base score is 3.3 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Cpanel

CVE-2018-20940

cPanel before 68.0.27 allows attackers to read root's crontab file during a short time interval upon the enabling of backups (SEC-342).

Vulnerability class: Race Condition

Published 2019-08-01 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 3.3 (Low). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (16.6th percentile), scored 2026-09-28.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 17th percentile — 16.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.003 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Cpanel

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-362 — Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition)

References

documentation.cpanel.net/display/CL/68+Change+Log (Release Notes, Vendor Advisory)
news.cpanel.com/cpanel-tsr-2018-0001-full-disclosure/ (Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-20940?: CVE-2018-20940 is a low-severity vulnerability in Cpanel, classified under Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition). CVSS score: 3.3/10. Published 2019-08-01.
How severe is CVE-2018-20940?: Low severity. CVSS v3 base score is 3.3 out of 10.