CVE-2018-12327

Exp

Stack-based buffer overflow in ntpq and ntpdc of NTP version 4.2.8p11 allows an attacker to achieve code execution or escalate to higher privileges via a long string as the argument for an IPv4 or IPv6 command-line parameter. NOTE: It is unclear whether there are any common situations in which ntpq or ntpdc is used with a command line from an untrusted source.

Published: 2018-06-20 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-12327 is rated High Exploit Risk (93.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 29.04%, 98th percentile). 3 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +13.07% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2018-12327

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
44909 exploit_db edb 2018-06-20 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-12327

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 15.97% 29.04% +13.07%
2 2026-04-18 15.00% 15.97% +0.96%
3 2026-03-25 — 15.00% —

Full EPSS history (34 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-12327

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
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.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-12327

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-12327

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2018-12327 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ntp), 1 status rows across 1 suites (bullseye): open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-12327
gentoo normal CVE-2018-12327: 1 GLSA(s) (201903-15), 1 atom(s) (net-misc/ntp); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-12327
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-12327
suse low CVE-2018-12327 severity low: SUSE including 23 source package names (ntp-4.2.6p5-29.el7, ntp-4.2.8p12-4.3.2, …), 104 product×package rows across 72 product lines (Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-Basic-On-Demand, … (72 product lines)): Fixed 104. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-12327/
ubuntu negligible CVE-2018-12327 negligible priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ntp), 15 status rows across 15 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, released 4, DNE 2, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-12327

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-12327

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ntp ntp 4.2.8 cpe:2.3:a:ntp:ntp:4.2.8:p11:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-12327

cvelogic Threat Intelligence