Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2018-12520

An issue was discovered in ntopng 3.4 before 3.4.180617. The PRNG involved in the generation of session IDs is not seeded at program startup. This results in deterministic session IDs being allocated for active user sessions. An attacker with foreknowledge of the operating system and standard library in use by the host running the service and the username of the user whose session they're targeting can abuse the deterministic random number generation in order to hijack the user's session, thus escalating their access.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 8.1, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network but requires specific conditions to be met without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from ntop organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2018, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2018-07-05T20:29:00.527

Last Modified

2024-11-21T03:45:21.340

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 8.1 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: MEDIUM
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

6.4

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-335

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	ntop	ntopng	< 3.4.180617	Yes

References

http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2018/Jul/14 Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://gist.github.com/Psychotropos/3e8c047cada9b1fb716e6a014a428b7f Exploit ([email protected])
https://github.com/ntop/ntopng/commit/30610bda60cbfc058f90a1c0a17d0e8f4516221a Patch ([email protected])
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44973/ Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2018/Jul/14 Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://gist.github.com/Psychotropos/3e8c047cada9b1fb716e6a014a428b7f Exploit (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/ntop/ntopng/commit/30610bda60cbfc058f90a1c0a17d0e8f4516221a Patch (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44973/ Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For ntop's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.