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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2018-16403 json

libdw in elfutils 0.173 checks the end of the attributes list incorrectly in dwarf_getabbrev in dwarf_getabbrev.c and dwarf_hasattr in dwar…

published 2018-09-03 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-8246

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.1%
EPSS 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 66%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

libdw in elfutils 0.173 checks the end of the attributes list incorrectly in dwarf_getabbrev in dwarf_getabbrev.c and dwarf_hasattr in dwarf_hasattr.c, leading to a heap-based buffer over-read and an application crash.

Patch / fix

  • elfutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.175-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16403

  • elfutils Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 0.165-3ubuntu1.2
  • elfutils Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 0.170-0.4ubuntu0.1
  • elfutils Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 0.158-0ubuntu5.3+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16403

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

  • elfutils RHEL 7 0.176-2.el7
  • elfutils-libs RHEL 7 0.176-2.el7
  • elfutils-libelf RHEL 7 0.176-2.el7
  • elfutils-default-yama-scope RHEL 7 0.176-2.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:2197

  • dwarves SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, SLE Micro 5.2, SLE Micro 5.1 +2 more 1.22-150300.7.3.1
  • elfutils SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, SLE Micro 5.2, SLE Micro 5.1 +2 more 0.177-150300.11.3.1
  • elfutils SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP4 +5 more 0.158-7.7.2
  • elfutils SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 0.168-4.5.3

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:2614-2SUSE-SU-2022:2614-1SUSE-SU-2019:1733-1SUSE-SU-2019:1486-1

  • elfutils openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Leap 15.0 0.168-lp151.4.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2019:1590-1

  • elfutils Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +10 more 0.174-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2018-16403

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

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-2018-16403 updated cvss 3.3

elfutils: Heap-based buffer over-read in libdw/dwarf_getabbrev.c and libwd/dwarf_hasattr.c causes crash

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 elfutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 elfutils, elfutils-libs, elfutils-libelf Red Hat Virtualization 4 elfutils
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • 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) elfutils 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libs 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) elfutils-devel 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-debuginfo 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-devel-static 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) elfutils 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libs 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) elfutils-devel 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-debuginfo 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-devel-static 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) elfutils 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libs 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) elfutils-debuginfo 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-devel-static 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.176-2.el7
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) elfutils 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libs 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) elfutils-debuginfo 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-devel-static 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.176-2.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2197
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 elfutils, elfutils-libs, elfutils-libelf, elfutils-default-yama-scope
    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

1.12% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 66% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • sourceware.org https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23529 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:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/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.