CVE-2018-14879

The command-line argument parser in tcpdump before 4.9.3 has a buffer overflow in tcpdump.c:get_next_file().

Published: 2019-10-03 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-14879 is rated Moderate Risk (63.4/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.67%, 91th percentile). EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +3.67% 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-2018-14879

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 1.00% 4.67% +3.67%
2 2026-05-26 0.52% 1.00% +0.48%
3 2026-03-04 — 0.52% —

Full EPSS history (45 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-14879

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.0 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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: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: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: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.
 1.0 5.9 [email protected]
7.0 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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: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: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: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.
 1.0 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
5.1 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:H/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:H)
Exploitation requires uncommon or highly specific conditions.
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.
 4.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-14879

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-14879

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2018-14879: 1 source package rows (tcpdump); 20 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 10, open 10. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-14879
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-14879 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (tcpdump), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-14879
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-14879
suse medium CVE-2018-14879 severity moderate: SUSE including 244 source package names (10.1-2.2.74:tcpdump-4.9.2-3.9.1, 10.1-4.1:tcpdump-4.9.2-3.9.1, …), 303 product×package rows across 73 product lines (Container suse/sle-micro/5.0/toolbox, Container suse/sle-micro/5.1/toolbox, … (73 product lines)): Known Affected 157, Fixed 146. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-14879/
ubuntu low CVE-2018-14879 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (tcpdump), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 4, ignored 1, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-14879

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-14879

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
f5 traffix_signaling_delivery_controller >= 5.0.0, <= 5.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:f5:traffix_signaling_delivery_controller:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tcpdump tcpdump < 4.9.3 cpe:2.3:a:tcpdump:tcpdump:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple mac_os_x < 10.15.2 cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 29 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:29:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 30 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.0 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.1 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-14879

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00050.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-10/msg00053.html Third Party Advisory
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Dec/26 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump/blob/tcpdump-4.9/CHANGES Release Notes Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump/commit/9ba91381954ad325ea4fd26b9c65a8bd9a2a85b6 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/10/msg00015.html Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/62XY42U6HY3H2APR5EHNWCZ7SAQNMMJN/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/FNYXF3IY2X65IOD422SA6EQUULSGW7FN/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/R2UDPOSGVJQIYC33SQBXMDXHH4QDSDMU/
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Dec/23 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Oct/28 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200120-0001/
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT210788 Third Party Advisory
https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K51512510?utm_source=f5support&amp%3Butm_medium=RSS
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4252-1/
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4252-2/
https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4547 Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence