# CVE-2020-37123: Pinger - RCE

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2020-37123 by the CrowdSec Live Exploit Tracker, built from real-world attack data crowdsourced from CrowdSec's global network.

Page: https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2020-37123

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Background Noise. Continuous low-level scanning or exploitation attempts are observed, mostly opportunistic and automated.
- **CVSS score:** 9.8
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** Pinger
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-78 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection'))
- **Tags:** web_application

## Description

Pinger contains a remote code execution vulnerability that allows attackers to inject shell commands through the ping and socket parameters in ping.php.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2020-37123](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2020-37123) is a critical remote code execution vulnerability in Pinger that allows unauthenticated attackers to inject and execute arbitrary shell commands through unsanitized ping and socket parameters in ping.php.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 12th of March 2026.

According to CrowdSec data, while opportunistic exploitation dominates, a portion of threat actors trying to exploit CVE-2020-37123 apply basic targeting methods such as port or service detection. This indicates emerging patterns of selective targeting.
CrowdSec network telemetry also shows that exploitation of CVE-2020-37123 has significantly declined over the past week. Attack volumes are well below the long-term average, suggesting attackers are rapidly losing interest. The vulnerability appears to be falling out of active use across most threat landscapes.

Attackers exploit the `/ping.php` endpoint by sending POST requests with shell metacharacters in the `ping` body parameter to execute arbitrary system commands on the server.

## Timeline

- 2020-04-15: CVE Published. CVE-2020-37123 is published to NVD.
- 2026-03-12: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2020-37123 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2026-03-16: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2020-37123 for the first time.

## References

- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/48323
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-37123
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-37123.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2020-37123) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2020-37123. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.