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CVE-2018-16402: Elfutils Project: Memory corruption

CVE-2018-16402 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 and affects Elfutils Project, along with 6 other products in NVD’s configuration data. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

libelf/elf_end.c in elfutils 0.173 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (double free and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact because it tries to decompress twice.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.1 9.8: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-415: Double Free

The product calls free() twice on the same memory address.

Affected products

Elfutils Project: 0.173
Debian Linux: 9.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop: 7.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server: 7.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation: 7.0
Opensuse Leap: 15.0; 15.1
Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 16.04; 18.04; 18.10