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CVE-2018-16402

32
FAUCET Score

CVE-2018-16402 is a critical double-free vulnerability in libelf/elf_end.c of elfutils 0.173, affecting various Linux distributions including Canonical, Debian, openSUSE, and Red Hat. With a CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL), it allows unauthenticated remote attackers to cause a denial of service or potentially achieve arbitrary code execution due to an attempt to decompress data twice. Despite its high severity, there is no known active exploitation, publicly available exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage surrounding this vulnerability.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
0.173CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:elfutils_project:elfutils:0.173:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
9.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

9.8CRITICAL

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

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
3.69%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
88.5%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-25
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0369 is in the 81st percentile among its peer group of 36,833 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.3 Mastodon, and 2.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (6)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.4 for RHEL 7Fixed in: ansible-tower-34/ansible-tower-memcached:1.4.15-28
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.4 for RHEL 7Fixed in: ansible-tower-35/ansible-tower-memcached:1.4.15-28
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.4 for RHEL 7Fixed in: ansible-tower-37/ansible-tower-memcached-rhel7:1.4.15-28
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: elfutils-0:0.176-2.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 Extended Update SupportFixed in: elfutils-0:0.172-4.el7_6
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Virtualization 4Fixed in: elfutils

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2018-16402Low

elfutils: Double-free due to double decompression of sections in crafted ELF causes crash

Aug 15, 2018

References

lists.opensuse.org / opensuse-security-announce/2019-06/msg00052.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2019:2197
Third Party Advisory
lists.apache.org / thread.html/r1b103833cb5bc8466e24ff0ecc5e75b45a705334ab6a444e64e840a0%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2021/10/msg00030.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
sourceware.org / bugzilla/show_bug.cgi
ExploitIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 4012-1
Third Party Advisory