CVE-2018-16981

Exp

stb stb_image.h 2.19, as used in catimg, Emscripten, and other products, has a heap-based buffer overflow in the stbi__out_gif_code function.

Published: 2018-09-12 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-16981 is rated High Exploit Risk (76.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.59%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.23% 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-2018-16981

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-16981

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 0.36% 1.59% +1.23%
2 2026-05-04 0.30% 0.36% +0.06%
3 2026-05-02 — 0.30% —

Full EPSS history (20 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-16981

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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: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.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/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:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
 8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-16981

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-16981

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-16981 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libstb), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-16981
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-16981
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-16981 medium priority: Ubuntu including 13 source packages (catimg, ccextractor, …), 247 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 147, DNE 48, needs-triage 40, needed 6, released 6. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-16981

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-16981

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
nothings stb_image.h 2.19 cpe:2.3:a:nothings:stb_image.h:2.19:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-16981

URL Tags
https://github.com/nothings/stb/issues/656 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/01/msg00045.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence