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Fencer Intel
high 7.0

CVE-2018-15686 json

systemd: reexec state injection: fgets() on overlong lines leads to line splitting

published 2018-10-26 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-7556

cvss
7.0
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.3%
EPSS 2.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 83%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

A vulnerability in unit_deserialize of systemd allows an attacker to supply arbitrary state across systemd re-execution via NotifyAccess. This can be used to improperly influence systemd execution and possibly lead to root privilege escalation. Affected releases are systemd versions up to and including 239.

Patch / fix

  • systemd Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 239-12

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-15686

  • systemd Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 229-4ubuntu21.8
  • systemd Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 237-3ubuntu10.6

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-15686

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

  • systemd RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • libgudev1 RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-libs RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-sysv RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-python RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-networkd RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-resolved RHEL 7 219-67.el7
  • systemd-journal-gateway RHEL 7 219-67.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:1264RHSA-2020:0593RHSA-2019:3222RHSA-2019:2091

  • systemd SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +10 more 228-150.53.3
  • systemd SLE Module for Basesystem 15 234-24.15.1
  • systemd SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1-LTSS 210-116.19.1
  • systemd SLES 12-LTSS 210-70.74.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:0054-2SUSE-SU-2019:0054-1SUSE-SU-2019:0053-1SUSE-SU-2018:3767-2SUSE-SU-2018:3767-1SUSE-SU-2018:3644-1

  • systemd openSUSE Tumbleweed 249.4-2.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11420-1

  • systemd Arch Linux 239.300-1

arch linux advisories AVG-789

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-2018-15686 updated cvss 3.6

systemd: line splitting via fgets() allows for state injection during daemon-reexec

  • Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.4 for RHEL 7 Server ansible-tower-34/ansible-tower-memcached 1.4.15-28, ansible-tower-35/ansible-tower-memcached 1.4.15-28, ansible-tower-37/ansible-tower-memcached-rhel7 1.4.15-28
    fixed: vendor fix RHBA-2020:0547
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) systemd 219-67.el7, libgudev1 219-67.el7, systemd-libs 219-67.el7, systemd-sysv 219-67.el7, systemd-python 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-67.el7, systemd-resolved 219-67.el7, systemd-journal-gateway 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) systemd 219-67.el7, libgudev1 219-67.el7, systemd-libs 219-67.el7, systemd-sysv 219-67.el7, systemd-python 219-67.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2091
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode EUS (v. 7.5) systemd 219-57.el7_5.9, libgudev1 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-libs 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-sysv 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-python 219-57.el7_5.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1264
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode EUS (v. 7.6) systemd 219-62.el7_6.11, libgudev1 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-libs 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-sysv 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-python 219-62.el7_6.11
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3222
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-67.el7, systemd-resolved 219-67.el7, systemd-journal-gateway 219-67.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2091
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional EUS (v. 7.5) systemd-networkd 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-resolved 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-journal-gateway 219-57.el7_5.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1264
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional EUS (v. 7.6) systemd-networkd 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-resolved 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-journal-gateway 219-62.el7_6.11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) systemd 219-62.el7_6.11, libgudev1 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-libs 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-sysv 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-python 219-62.el7_6.11 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-resolved 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-journal-gateway 219-62.el7_6.11
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3222
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) systemd 219-67.el7, libgudev1 219-67.el7, systemd-libs 219-67.el7, systemd-sysv 219-67.el7, systemd-python 219-67.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2091
show 10 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server AUS (v. 7.4) systemd 219-42.el7_4.20, libgudev1 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-libs 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-sysv 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-python 219-42.el7_4.20 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server E4S (v. 7.4) systemd 219-42.el7_4.20, libgudev1 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-libs 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-sysv 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-python 219-42.el7_4.20
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0593
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.5) systemd 219-57.el7_5.9, libgudev1 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-libs 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-sysv 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-python 219-57.el7_5.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1264
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.6) systemd 219-62.el7_6.11, libgudev1 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-libs 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-sysv 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-python 219-62.el7_6.11
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3222
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-67.el7, systemd-resolved 219-67.el7, systemd-journal-gateway 219-67.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2091
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional AUS (v. 7.4) systemd-networkd 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-resolved 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-journal-gateway 219-42.el7_4.20 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional E4S (v. 7.4) systemd-networkd 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-resolved 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-journal-gateway 219-42.el7_4.20
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0593
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional EUS (v. 7.5) systemd-networkd 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-resolved 219-57.el7_5.9, systemd-journal-gateway 219-57.el7_5.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1264
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional EUS (v. 7.6) systemd-networkd 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-resolved 219-62.el7_6.11, systemd-journal-gateway 219-62.el7_6.11
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3222
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional TUS (v. 7.4) systemd-networkd 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-resolved 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-journal-gateway 219-42.el7_4.20 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server TUS (v. 7.4) systemd 219-42.el7_4.20, libgudev1 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-libs 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-sysv 219-42.el7_4.20, systemd-python 219-42.el7_4.20
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:0593
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) systemd 219-67.el7, libgudev1 219-67.el7, systemd-libs 219-67.el7, systemd-sysv 219-67.el7, systemd-python 219-67.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) systemd-networkd 219-67.el7, systemd-resolved 219-67.el7, systemd-journal-gateway 219-67.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2091
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 systemd, systemd-pam, systemd-libs, systemd-udev, systemd-tests, systemd-container, +1 more
    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-45714)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
17 mo ago

Exploit prediction

2.26% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 83% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-45714 systemd - 'reexec' State Injection dos, 2018-10-29

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 7.0 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • systemd systemd

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data

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.