CVE-2018-12556

The signature verification routine in install.sh in yarnpkg/website through 2018-06-05 only verifies that the yarn release is signed by any (arbitrary) key in the local keyring of the user, and does not pin the signature to the yarn release key, which allows remote attackers to sign tampered yarn release packages with their own key.

Published: 2019-05-16 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-12556 is rated Moderate Risk (42.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.34%). 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-2018-12556

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 2025-03-17 0.37% 0.34% -0.03%
2 2024-12-17 0.47% 0.37% -0.10%
3 2024-11-15 0.47%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-12556

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N 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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.2 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-12556

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-12556

vendor priority summary link
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-12556 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (node-yarnpkg), 19 status rows across 19 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 10, needs-triage 5, DNE 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-12556

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-12556

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
yarnpkg website <= 2018-06-05 cpe:2.3:a:yarnpkg:website:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-12556

cvelogic Threat Intelligence