CVE-2018-12239

Norton prior to 22.15; Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) prior to 12.1.7454.7000 & 14.2; Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (SEP SBE) prior to NIS-22.15.1.8 & SEP-12.1.7454.7000; and Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud (SEP Cloud) prior to 22.15.1 may be susceptible to an AV bypass issue, which is a type of exploit that works to circumvent one of the virus detection engines to avoid a specific type of virus protection. One of the antivirus engines depends on a signature pattern from a database to identify malicious files and viruses; the antivirus bypass exploit looks to alter the file being scanned so it is not detected.

Published: 2018-11-29 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-12239 is rated Moderate Risk (41.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.52%). 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-2018-12239

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 0.08% 0.52% +0.44%
2 2023-03-07 0.89% 0.08% -0.81%
3 2022-02-04 — 0.89% —

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-12239

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 0.9 5.9 [email protected]
4.6 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 3.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-12239

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-12239

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
symantec endpoint_protection >= 11.0, < 12.1.7454.7000 cpe:2.3:a:symantec:endpoint_protection:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
symantec endpoint_protection >= 14.0, <= 14.2 cpe:2.3:a:symantec:endpoint_protection:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
symantec endpoint_protection_cloud < 22.15.1 cpe:2.3:a:symantec:endpoint_protection_cloud:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
symantec norton_antivirus < 22.15 cpe:2.3:a:symantec:norton_antivirus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-12239

cvelogic Threat Intelligence