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Fencer Intel
high 8.8

CVE-2018-3977 json

An exploitable code execution vulnerability exists in the XCF image rendering functionality of SDL2_image-2.0.3.

published 2018-11-01 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-15763

cvss
8.8
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.5%
EPSS 3.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 89%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An exploitable code execution vulnerability exists in the XCF image rendering functionality of SDL2_image-2.0.3. A specially crafted XCF image can cause a heap overflow, resulting in code execution. An attacker can display a specially crafted image to trigger this vulnerability.

Patch / fix

  • sdl-image1.2 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.2.12-10
  • libsdl2-image Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.0.3+dfsg1-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-3977

  • sdl-image1.2 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1.2.12-5+deb9u1ubuntu0.16.04.1
  • sdl-image1.2 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1.2.12-8ubuntu0.1
  • sdl-image1.2 Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 1.2.12-5+deb9u1ubuntu0.14.04.1~esm1
  • libsdl2-image Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2.0.0+dfsg-3+deb8u2build0.14.04.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-3977

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

  • SDL_image SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 1.2.6-84.46.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:3861-1

  • SDL2_image Package Hub 15 2.0.4-bp150.3.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2018:3906-1

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-2018-3977 updated cvss 8.8

SDL2_image: code execution in the XCF image rendering functionality

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    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

3.48% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • talosintelligence.com https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2018-0645 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 8.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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

Affected products

  • Simple DirectMedia Layer Simple DirectMedia Layer

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.