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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2018-15855 json

Unchecked NULL pointer usage in xkbcommon before 0.8.1 could be used by local attackers to crash (NULL pointer dereference) the xkbcommon p…

published 8y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2018-7712

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 37%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Unchecked NULL pointer usage in xkbcommon before 0.8.1 could be used by local attackers to crash (NULL pointer dereference) the xkbcommon parser by supplying a crafted keymap file, because the XkbFile for an xkb_geometry section was mishandled.

Patch / fix

  • xkbcommon_project xkbcommon 0.8.1
  • libxkbcommon Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.8.2-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-15855

  • libxkbcommon Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 0.4.1-0ubuntu1.1
  • libxkbcommon Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 0.5.0-1ubuntu2.1
  • libxkbcommon Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 0.8.0-1ubuntu0.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-15855

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

  • gdm RHEL 7 1:3.28.2-16.el7
  • libX11 RHEL 7 1.6.7-2.el7
  • mesa-libGLw RHEL 7 8.0.0-5.el7
  • libxkbcommon RHEL 7 0.7.1-3.el7
  • libX11-common RHEL 7 1.6.7-2.el7
  • xorg-x11-server RHEL 7 1.20.4-7.el7
  • libxkbcommon-x11 RHEL 7 0.7.1-3.el7
  • xorg-x11-drv-ati RHEL 7 19.0.1-2.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:2079

  • libxkbcommon SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 0.6.1-9.3.1
  • libxkbcommon SLE Module for Basesystem 15 0.8.2-3.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:0037-1SUSE-SU-2018:3685-1

Is CVE-2018-15855 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2018-15855 updated cvss 3.3

libxkbcommon: NULL pointer dereference when handling xkb_geometry

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) gdm 3.28.2-16.el7, libX11 1.6.7-2.el7, libxkbcommon 0.7.1-3.el7, libX11-common 1.6.7-2.el7, libxkbcommon-x11 0.7.1-3.el7, xorg-x11-server 1.20.4-7.el7, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) xorg-x11-server-Xdmx 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xvfb 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xnest 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-source 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xwayland 1.20.4-7.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libX11 1.6.7-2.el7, libxkbcommon 0.7.1-3.el7, libX11-common 1.6.7-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) gdm 3.28.2-16.el7, libxkbcommon-x11 0.7.1-3.el7, xorg-x11-server 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-drv-wacom 0.36.1-3.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xdmx 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xorg 1.20.4-7.el7, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) gdm 3.28.2-16.el7, libX11 1.6.7-2.el7, mesa-libGLw 8.0.0-5.el7, libxkbcommon 0.7.1-3.el7, libX11-common 1.6.7-2.el7, libxkbcommon-x11 0.7.1-3.el7, +7 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) xorg-x11-server-Xdmx 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xvfb 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xnest 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-source 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xwayland 1.20.4-7.el7
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) gdm 3.28.2-16.el7, libX11 1.6.7-2.el7, mesa-libGLw 8.0.0-5.el7, libxkbcommon 0.7.1-3.el7, libX11-common 1.6.7-2.el7, libxkbcommon-x11 0.7.1-3.el7, +7 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) xorg-x11-server-Xdmx 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xvfb 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xnest 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-source 1.20.4-7.el7, xorg-x11-server-Xwayland 1.20.4-7.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2079
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 libxkbcommon, libxkbcommon-x11
    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

Exploit prediction

0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 37% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

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:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness

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.