CVE-2018-11099

The header::add_INFO_descriptor function in header.cpp in VCFtools 0.1.15 allows remote attackers to cause information disclosure (heap-based buffer over-read) via a crafted vcf file.

Published: 2018-05-17 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-11099 is rated Moderate Risk (48/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.52%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.09% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-11099

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.44% 1.52% +1.09%
2 2025-11-21 0.24% 0.44% +0.19%
3 2025-11-18 0.24%

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-11099

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-11099

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-11099

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2018-11099 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (vcftools), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-11099
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-11099 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (vcftools), 15 status rows across 15 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 10, released 4, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-11099

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-11099

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vcftools_project vcftools 0.1.15 cpe:2.3:a:vcftools_project:vcftools:0.1.15:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-11099

cvelogic Threat Intelligence