Predictive Vulnerability Intelligence.

Product

  • Product
  • Pricing
  • Documentation

Company

  • About
  • Partnerships
  • Blog
  • Support

Legal

  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Data Licensing

© 2026 FAUCET Technologies LLC. All rights reserved.

CVE-2018-12020

29
FAUCET Score

CVE-2018-12020 is a vulnerability in GnuPG versions prior to 2.2.8 that allows remote attackers to spoof output sent to other programs using the "--status-fd 2" option during decryption and verification. This is due to mishandling of original filenames, potentially allowing malicious OpenPGP data with line feed characters to inject false status codes. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High), indicating a network-based attack with low complexity and high integrity impact, but no confidentiality or availability impact. While there is no known active exploitation or public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), the vulnerability has garnered community discussion and media coverage, suggesting awareness within the cybersecurity community.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
6.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
6.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.6CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_aus:7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.5HIGH

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

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
NONE
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
3.6
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
8.65%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
94.5%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-25
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0865 is in the 91st percentile among its peer group of 51,485 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (4)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: gnupg2-0:2.0.14-9.el6_10
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: gnupg2-0:2.0.22-5.el7_5
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: gnupg
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: gnupg2

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2018-12020Important

gnupg2: Improper sanitization of filenames allows for the display of fake status messages and the bypass of signature verification

Jun 8, 2018

References

openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2018/06/08/2
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
packetstormsecurity.com / files/152703/Johnny-You-Are-Fired.html
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2018:2180
Third Party Advisory
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2018:2181
Third Party Advisory
dev.gnupg.org / T4012
PatchVendor Advisory
seclists.org / fulldisclosure/2019/Apr/38
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
github.com / RUB-NDS/Johnny-You-Are-Fired
Technical DescriptionThird Party Advisory
github.com / RUB-NDS/Johnny-You-Are-Fired/blob/master/paper/johnny-fired.pdf
Technical DescriptionThird Party Advisory
help.ecostruxureit.com / display/public/UADCE725/Security+fixes+in+StruxureWare+Data+Center+Expert+v7.6.0
Third Party Advisory
lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2021/12/msg00027.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
lists.gnupg.org / pipermail/gnupg-announce/2018q2/000425.html
Mailing ListVendor Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 3675-1
Third Party Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 3675-2
Third Party Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 3675-3
Third Party Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 3964-1
Third Party Advisory
debian.org / security/2018/dsa-4222
Third Party Advisory
debian.org / security/2018/dsa-4223
Third Party Advisory
debian.org / security/2018/dsa-4224
Third Party Advisory
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2019/04/30/4
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
securityfocus.com / bid/104450
Broken Link
securitytracker.com / id/1041051
Broken Link