CVE-2018-9978

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to disclose sensitive information on vulnerable installations of Foxit Reader 9.0.0.29935. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of U3D files. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of user-supplied data, which can result in a read past the end of an allocated object. An attacker can leverage this in conjunction with other vulnerabilities to execute code in the context of the context process. Was ZDI-CAN-5428.

Published: 2018-05-17 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-9978 is rated Moderate Risk (57.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.54%). EPSS rose +2.31% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2018-9978

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 0.22% 2.54% +2.31%
2 2025-03-30 0.41% 0.22% -0.19%
3 2025-03-29 — 0.41% —

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-9978

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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: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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/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:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-9978

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-9978

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
foxitsoftware foxit_reader <= 9.0.1.1049 cpe:2.3:a:foxitsoftware:foxit_reader:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
foxitsoftware phantompdf <= 9.0.1.1049 cpe:2.3:a:foxitsoftware:phantompdf:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-9978

cvelogic Threat Intelligence