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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2018-11508 json

The compat_get_timex function in kernel/compat.c in the Linux kernel before 4.16.9 allows local users to obtain sensitive information from…

published 8y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2018-3537

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.7%
EPSS 1.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 76%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

The compat_get_timex function in kernel/compat.c in the Linux kernel before 4.16.9 allows local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel memory via adjtimex.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.16.9
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.16.12-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-11508

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-24.26
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1011.11
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1014.14~16.04.1
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1010.10
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-24.26~16.04.1
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1012.12
  • linux-oem Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.13.0-1031.35
  • linux-oem Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1009.12

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-11508

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-11508 updated cvss 3.3

kernel: Missing initialization in kernel/compat.c:compat_get_timex() allows local attacker to obtain possibly sensitive information via adjtimex

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, kernel-alt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-tools, +3 more
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-core, kernel-tools, python3-perf, +17 more Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. First public exploit (EDB-46208)

Exploit prediction

1.65% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 76% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-46208 Linux Kernel 4.13 - 'compat_get_timex()' Leak Kernel Pointer dos, 2019-01-21
  • bugs.chromium.org https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1574 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 5.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.