CVE-2018-14648

A flaw was found in 389 Directory Server. A specially crafted search query could lead to excessive CPU consumption in the do_search() function. An unauthenticated attacker could use this flaw to provoke a denial of service.

Published: 2018-09-28 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-14648 is rated High Risk (65.4/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 7.50%, 92th percentile). EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +3.25% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize 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-2018-14648

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 2026-04-13 4.25% 7.50% +3.25%
2 2026-02-11 10.17% 4.25% -5.92%
3 2025-08-29 — 10.17% —

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-14648

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.8 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C 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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 10.0 6.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-14648

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-14648

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-14648 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (389-ds-base), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, bullseye, sid, trixie): resolved 4. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-14648
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-14648
suse high CVE-2018-14648 severity important: SUSE including 32 source package names (389-ds-1.4.0.26~git0.8a2d3de6f-4.14.1, 389-ds-1.4.3.9~git0.3eb8617f6-1.2, …), 34 product×package rows across 9 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 7, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15, … (9 product lines)): Fixed 34. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-14648/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-14648 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (389-ds-base), 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): not-affected 14, needed 2, DNE 1, ignored 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-14648

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-14648

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
fedoraproject 389_directory_server < 1.4.0.17 cpe:2.3:a:fedoraproject:389_directory_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-14648

cvelogic Threat Intelligence