CVE-2018-16864
A local attacker may use this flaw to crash systemd-journald or escalate his privileges.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.71%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
An allocation of memory without limits, that could result in the stack clashing with another memory region, was discovered in systemd-journald when a program with long command line arguments calls syslog. A local attacker may use this flaw to crash systemd-journald or escalate his privileges. Versions through v240 are vulnerable.
- CVSS 3.1
- 7.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.71% probability · 53th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-770
- Affected
- systemd project/systemd · redhat/enterprise linux desktop · redhat/enterprise linux server · redhat/enterprise linux server aus · redhat/enterprise linux server eus · redhat/enterprise linux server tus · redhat/enterprise linux workstation · debian/debian linux · canonical/ubuntu linux · oracle/communications session border controller · oracle/enterprise communications broker
- Source
- secalert@redhat.com
EPSS 0.7% since 27 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/07/20/2Mailing List
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106523Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2019:0327Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0049Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0204Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0271Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0342Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0361Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2402Third Party Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2018-16864Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/01/msg00016.htmlThird Party Advisory
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201903-07Third Party Advisory
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190117-0001/Third Party Advisory
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3855-1/Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4367Third Party Advisory
- https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpuapr2019-5072813.htmlPatch, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.qualys.com/2019/01/09/system-down/system-down.txtExploit, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/07/20/2Mailing List
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106523Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2019:0327Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0049Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0204Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0271Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0342Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0361Third Party Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2402Third Party Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2018-16864Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/01/msg00016.htmlThird Party Advisory
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201903-07Third Party Advisory
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190117-0001/Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.