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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2018-16301 json

The command-line argument parser in tcpdump before 4.99.0 has a buffer overflow in tcpdump.c:read_infile().

published 7y ago modified last mo. also EUVD-2018-8152

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 50%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The command-line argument parser in tcpdump before 4.99.0 has a buffer overflow in tcpdump.c:read_infile(). To trigger this vulnerability the attacker needs to create a 4GB file on the local filesystem and to specify the file name as the value of the -F command-line argument of tcpdump.

Patch / fix

  • The Tcpdump Group tcpdump 4.99.0
  • tcpdump Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.99.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16301

  • tcpdump Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.9.3-0ubuntu0.18.04.2
  • tcpdump Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 4.9.3-4ubuntu0.1
  • tcpdump Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 4.9.3-0ubuntu0.16.04.1+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16301

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

  • tcpdump SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES for SAP 15 +18 more 4.9.2-3.18.1
  • tcpdump SLES 11 SP4-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 3.9.8-1.30.19.1
  • tcpdump SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +10 more 4.9.2-14.20.1
  • tcpdump SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.9.2-14.17.1
  • tcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 4.9.2-3.9.1
  • libpcap SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 1.8.1-4.3.1
  • libpcap SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +20 more 1.8.1-10.3.1
  • tcpdump SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +16 more 4.9.2-14.14.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:0774-1SUSE-SU-2022:14890-1SUSE-SU-2022:0505-1SUSE-SU-2020:3360-1SUSE-SU-2019:2674-1SUSE-SU-2019:2673-1

  • tcpdump openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.99.1-1.2
  • tcpdump openSUSE Leap 15.3 4.9.2-3.18.1
  • tcpdump openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.9.2-lp151.4.6.1
  • libpcap openSUSE Leap 15.1 1.8.1-lp151.4.3.1
  • tcpdump openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.9.2-lp150.10.1
  • libpcap openSUSE Leap 15.0 1.8.1-lp150.3.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11425-1openSUSE-SU-2022:0774-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2348-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2345-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2344-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2343-1

  • libpcap Alpine 3.10 1.1.1-r0
  • libpcap Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +10 more 1.9.1-r0
  • tcpdump Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +13 more 4.9.3-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2018-16301

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • tcpdump CBL-Mariner 2.0 4.99.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-8506

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Is CVE-2018-16301 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-2018-16301 updated cvss 5.3

tcpdump: Buffer overflow in the -F command line argument parser

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 tcpdump Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 tcpdump
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 tcpdump
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 tcpdump
    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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
last mo.

Exploit prediction

0.63% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 50% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.4 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • The Tcpdump Group tcpdump

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound
  • CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write
  • CWE-120 Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input

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.