What is CVE-2024-38366?

CVE-2024-38366 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Cocoapods, classified under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (Injection). CVSS score: 10.0/10. Published 2024-07-01.

How severe is CVE-2024-38366?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 10.0 out of 10.

Is CVE-2024-38366 known to be exploited?

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

Vulnerability in Cocoapods

CVE-2024-38366

trunk.cocoapods.org is the authentication server for the CoacoaPods dependency manager. The part of trunk which verifies whether a user has a real email address on signup used a rfc-822 library which executes a shell command to validate the email domain MX records validity. It works via an DNS MX. This lookup could be manipulated to also execute a command on the trunk server, effectively giving root access to the server and the infrastructure. This issue was patched server-side with commit 001cc3a430e75a16307f5fd6cdff1363ad2f40f3 in September 2023. This RCE triggered a full user-session reset, as an attacker could have used this method to write to any Podspec in trunk.

Published 2024-07-01 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 10.0 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.178 (97.1th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 97th percentile — 97.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.178 · newest: 0.178 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Cocoapods — versions < 001cc3a430e75a16307f5fd6cdff1363ad2f40f3
Cocoapods Trunk.cocoapods.org

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-74 — Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (Injection)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/security/advisories/GHSA-x2x4-g675-qg7c (Third Party Advisory)
blog.cocoapods.org/CocoaPods-Trunk-RCEs-2023 (Vendor Advisory)
evasec.webflow.io/blog/eva-discovered-supply-chain-vulnerabities-in-cocoapods (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2024-38366?: CVE-2024-38366 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Cocoapods, classified under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (Injection). CVSS score: 10.0/10. Published 2024-07-01.
How severe is CVE-2024-38366?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 10.0 out of 10.
Is CVE-2024-38366 known to be exploited?: 6 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.