CVE-2018-20196

Exp

There is a stack-based buffer overflow in the third instance of the calculate_gain function in libfaad/sbr_hfadj.c in Freeware Advanced Audio Decoder 2 (FAAD2) 2.8.8. A crafted input will lead to a denial of service or possibly unspecified other impact because the S_M array is mishandled.

Published: 2018-12-18 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-20196 is rated High Exploit Risk (66.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.36%). 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-2018-20196

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-20196

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 2026-05-26 0.33% 0.36% +0.02%
2 2025-11-21 0.39% 0.33% -0.05%
3 2025-05-04 0.39%

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-20196

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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: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.
1.8 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-2018-20196

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-20196

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2018-20196: 1 source package rows (faad2); 9 state rows across 9 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 9, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-20196
debian low CVE-2018-20196 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (faad2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-20196
gentoo normal CVE-2018-20196: 1 GLSA(s) (202006-17), 1 atom(s) (media-libs/faad2); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-20196
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-20196 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (faad2), 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 13, ignored 2, needed 2, deferred 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-20196

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-20196

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
audiocoding freeware_advanced_audio_decoder_2 2.8.8 cpe:2.3:a:audiocoding:freeware_advanced_audio_decoder_2:2.8.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-20196

cvelogic Threat Intelligence