Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2018-16865


An allocation of memory without limits, that could result in the stack clashing with another memory region, was discovered in systemd-journald when many entries are sent to the journal socket. A local attacker, or a remote one if systemd-journal-remote is used, may use this flaw to crash systemd-journald or execute code with journald privileges. Versions through v240 are vulnerable.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 11 products from systemd_project, from redhat, from redhat and 8 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2019, 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

2019-01-11T21:29:00.257

Last Modified

2024-11-21T03:53:28.770

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.8 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

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

  • Access Vector: LOCAL
  • Access Complexity: LOW
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
  • Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
  • Availability Impact: PARTIAL
Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

6.4

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-770
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-770

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application systemd_project systemd ≤ 240 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 7.0 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_server 7.0 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_server_aus 7.3 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_server_aus 7.6 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.5 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.6 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_server_tus 7.3 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_server_tus 7.6 Yes
Operating System redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 7.0 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 8.0 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 9.0 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 Yes
Operating System canonical ubuntu_linux 18.10 Yes
Application oracle communications_session_border_controller 8.0.0 Yes
Application oracle communications_session_border_controller 8.1.0 Yes
Application oracle communications_session_border_controller 8.2.0 Yes
Application oracle enterprise_communications_broker 3.0.0 Yes
Application oracle enterprise_communications_broker 3.1.0 Yes

References

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 systemd_project'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.