CVE-2018-7998

Exp

In libvips before 8.6.3, a NULL function pointer dereference vulnerability was found in the vips_region_generate function in region.c, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted image file. This occurs because of a race condition involving a failed delayed load and other worker threads.

Published: 2018-03-09 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2018-7998 is rated High Exploit Risk (64/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: 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-2018-7998

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-7998

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 2025-11-21 0.43% 0.32% -0.11%
2 2025-11-18 0.34% 0.43% +0.09%
3 2025-03-30 0.34%

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-7998

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:H/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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.
1.6 5.9 [email protected]
5.1 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:H/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:H)
Exploitation requires uncommon or highly specific conditions.
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.
4.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-7998

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-7998

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2018-7998 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (vips), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-7998
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-7998 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (vips), 16 status rows across 16 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 10, released 3, ignored 2, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-7998

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-7998

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
libvips libvips < 8.6.3 cpe:2.3:a:libvips:libvips:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-7998

cvelogic Threat Intelligence