CVE-2018-5710

An issue was discovered in MIT Kerberos 5 (aka krb5) through 1.16. The pre-defined function "strlen" is getting a "NULL" string as a parameter value in plugins/kdb/ldap/libkdb_ldap/ldap_principal2.c in the Key Distribution Center (KDC), which allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference) via a modified kadmin client.

Published: 2018-01-16 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-5710 is rated Moderate Risk (46.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.39%). 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-2018-5710

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 2026-05-30 0.56% 0.39% -0.18%
2 2025-11-21 0.39% 0.56% +0.18%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.39% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-5710

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:L/UI:N/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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: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]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/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:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-5710

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-5710

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2018-5710: 1 source package rows (krb5); 10 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 10, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-5710
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-5710 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (krb5), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-5710
redhat — — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-5710
suse medium CVE-2018-5710 severity moderate: SUSE including 12 source package names (krb5, krb5-32bit, …), 49 product×package rows across 14 product lines (Magnum Orchestration 7, SUSE Container as a Service Platform 2.0, … (14 product lines)): Known Not Affected 49. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-5710/
ubuntu low CVE-2018-5710 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (krb5), 13 status rows across 13 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, released 4, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-5710

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-5710

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mit kerberos <= 5-1.16 cpe:2.3:a:mit:kerberos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-5710

cvelogic Threat Intelligence