CVE-2018-17205

Exp

An issue was discovered in Open vSwitch (OvS) 2.7.x through 2.7.6, affecting ofproto_rule_insert__ in ofproto/ofproto.c. During bundle commit, flows that are added in a bundle are applied to ofproto in order. If a flow cannot be added (e.g., the flow action is a go-to for a group id that does not exist), OvS tries to revert back all previous flows that were successfully applied from the same bundle. This is possible since OvS maintains list of old flows that were replaced by flows from the bundle. While reinserting old flows, OvS has an assertion failure due to a check on rule state != RULE_INITIALIZED. This would work for new flows, but for an old flow the rule state is RULE_REMOVED. The assertion failure causes an OvS crash.

Published: 2018-09-19 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-17205 is rated High Exploit Risk (69.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.82%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: 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-2018-17205

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-17205

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 2025-03-30 1.69% 0.82% -0.88%
2 2025-03-29 0.82% 1.69% +0.88%
3 2025-03-17 0.82%

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-17205

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]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-17205

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-17205

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-17205 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (openvswitch), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-17205
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-17205
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-17205/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-17205 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (openvswitch), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, cosmic, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 2, DNE 1, needs-triage 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-17205

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-17205

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
openvswitch openvswitch >= 2.7.0, <= 2.7.6 cpe:2.3:a:openvswitch:openvswitch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openstack 10 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack:10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openstack 13 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openstack:13:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-17205

cvelogic Threat Intelligence