CVE-2018-20817

Exp

SV_SteamAuthClient in various Activision Infinity Ward Call of Duty games before 2015-08-11 is missing a size check when reading authBlob data into a buffer, which allows one to execute code on the remote target machine when sending a steam authentication request. This affects Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops 1, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Published: 2019-04-19 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-20817 is rated High Exploit Risk (85.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.60%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2018-20817

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-20817

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 3.06% 3.60% +0.54%
2 2026-02-22 2.36% 3.06% +0.70%
3 2025-11-21 — 2.36% —

Full EPSS history (22 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-20817

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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: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: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.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/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:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
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.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-20817

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-20817

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
activision call_of_duty:_advanced_warfare — cpe:2.3:a:activision:call_of_duty\:_advanced_warfare:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
activision call_of_duty:_black_ops_1 — cpe:2.3:a:activision:call_of_duty\:_black_ops_1:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
activision call_of_duty:_blacks_ops_2 — cpe:2.3:a:activision:call_of_duty\:_blacks_ops_2:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
activision call_of_duty:_ghosts — cpe:2.3:a:activision:call_of_duty\:_ghosts:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
activision call_of_duty:_modern_warfare_2 — cpe:2.3:a:activision:call_of_duty\:_modern_warfare_2:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
activision call_of_duty:_modern_warfare_3 — cpe:2.3:a:activision:call_of_duty\:_modern_warfare_3:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-20817

cvelogic Threat Intelligence