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Fencer Intel
high 8.8

CVE-2018-17942 json

The convert_to_decimal function in vasnprintf.c in Gnulib before 2018-09-23 has a heap-based buffer overflow because memory is not allocate…

published 8y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2018-9683

cvss
8.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.9%
EPSS 2.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 87%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The convert_to_decimal function in vasnprintf.c in Gnulib before 2018-09-23 has a heap-based buffer overflow because memory is not allocated for a trailing '\0' character during %f processing.

Patch / fix

  • gnu gnulib 2018-09-23
  • gnulib Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 20140202+stable-3.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-17942

  • gnulib Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 20140202+stable-2+deb8u1build0.16.04.1
  • gnulib Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 20140202+stable-2+deb8u1build0.18.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-17942

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

Is CVE-2018-17942 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-2018-17942 updated cvss 3.3

gnulib: heap-based buffer overflow in convert_to_decimal function in vasnprintf.c

  • Red Hat Storage 3 nagios-plugins, nagios-plugins-ping, nagios-plugins-dummy, nagios-plugins-procs, nagios-plugins-ide_smart
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 parted Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 libvirt, coreutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libvirt, coreutils, coreutils-libs, libvirt-client, libvirt-python, libvirt-lock-sanlock Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 libvirt, coreutils, libvirt-nss, libvirt-libs, libvirt-admin, libvirt-client, +25 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 libvirt, coreutils, libvirt-nss, libvirt-libs, libvirt-admin, libvirt-client, +25 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

Exploit prediction

2.89% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • savannah.gnu.org https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=54686 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • lists.gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2018-09/msg00107.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 8.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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.