CVE-2018-5205

When using incomplete escape codes, Irssi before 1.0.6 may access data beyond the end of the string.

Published: 2018-01-06 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-5205 is rated Moderate Risk (54.2/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.59%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-5205

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 2026-05-27 0.70% 0.59% -0.11%
2 2026-04-13 0.37% 0.70% +0.33%
3 2026-04-05 0.37%

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-5205

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:H/I:N/A:N 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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N 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:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-5205

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-5205

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2018-5205: 1 source package rows (irssi); 20 state rows across 11 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 11, open 9. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-5205
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-5205 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (irssi), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-5205
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-5205
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-5205 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (irssi), 5 status rows across 5 suites (artful, trusty, upstream, xenial, zesty): released 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-5205

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-5205

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
irssi irssi < 1.0.6 cpe:2.3:a:irssi:irssi:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 17.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:17.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 17.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:17.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-5205

cvelogic Threat Intelligence