CVE-2018-20541

Exp

There is a heap-based buffer overflow in libxsmm_sparse_csc_reader at generator_spgemm_csc_reader.c in LIBXSMM 1.10, a different vulnerability than CVE-2018-20542 (which is in a different part of the source code and is seen at different addresses).

Published: 2018-12-28 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-20541 is rated High Exploit Risk (78.6/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.92%). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.37% 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-2018-20541

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-20541

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 0.54% 1.92% +1.37%
2 2025-03-30 1.35% 0.54% -0.81%
3 2025-03-29 — 1.35% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-20541

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/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-2018-20541

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-20541

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-20541 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libxsmm), 3 status rows across 3 suites (bookworm, sid, trixie): resolved 3. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-20541
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-20541 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libxsmm), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 7, ignored 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-20541

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-20541

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
libxsmm_project libxsmm 1.10 cpe:2.3:a:libxsmm_project:libxsmm:1.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-20541

URL Tags
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1652632 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/hfp/libxsmm/commit/151481489192e6d1997f8bde52c5c425ea41741d Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/hfp/libxsmm/issues/287 Exploit Patch Third Party Advisory
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