CVE-2018-20533

Exp

There is a NULL pointer dereference at ext/testcase.c (function testcase_str2dep_complex) in libsolvext.a in libsolv through 0.7.2 that will cause a denial of service.

Published: 2018-12-28 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-20533 is rated High Exploit Risk (70.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.16%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.62% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2018-20533

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-20533

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 0.55% 2.16% +1.62%
2 2026-02-07 0.56% 0.55% -0.01%
3 2026-01-25 0.56%

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-20533

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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: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: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.
2.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/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:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-20533

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-20533

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2018-20533 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libsolv), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-20533
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-20533
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-20533 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libsolv), 14 status rows across 14 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 13, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-20533

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-20533

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
opensuse libsolv <= 0.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:opensuse:libsolv:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-20533

cvelogic Threat Intelligence