CVE-2018-7186

Leptonica before 1.75.3 does not limit the number of characters in a %s format argument to fscanf or sscanf, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (stack-based buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a long string, as demonstrated by the gplotRead and ptaReadStream functions.

Published: 2018-02-16 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-7186 is rated High Risk (71/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.12%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.49% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize 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-2018-7186

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 2026-03-22 1.63% 3.12% +1.49%
2 2026-03-15 3.12% 1.63% -1.49%
3 2025-12-15 3.12%

Full EPSS history (17 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-7186

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-2018-7186

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-7186

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2018-7186 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (leptonlib), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-7186
gentoo high CVE-2018-7186: 1 GLSA(s) (202312-01), 1 atom(s) (media-libs/leptonica); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-7186
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-7186 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (leptonlib), 13 status rows across 13 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 9, released 2, ignored 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-7186

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-7186

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
leptonica leptonica < 1.75.3 cpe:2.3:a:leptonica:leptonica:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-7186

cvelogic Threat Intelligence