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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2018-1083 json

Zsh before version 5.4.2-test-1 is vulnerable to a buffer overflow in the shell autocomplete functionality.

published 2018-03-28 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-11733

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 48%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Zsh before version 5.4.2-test-1 is vulnerable to a buffer overflow in the shell autocomplete functionality. A local unprivileged user can create a specially crafted directory path which leads to code execution in the context of the user who tries to use autocomplete to traverse the before mentioned path. If the user affected is privileged, this leads to privilege escalation.

Patch / fix

  • zsh Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.4.2-4

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-1083

  • zsh Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 5.0.2-3ubuntu6.2
  • zsh Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 5.1.1-1ubuntu2.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-1083

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • zsh RHEL 6 4.3.11-8.el6
  • zsh-html RHEL 6 4.3.11-8.el6
  • zsh RHEL 7 5.0.2-31.el7
  • zsh-html RHEL 7 5.0.2-31.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2018:1932RHSA-2018:3073

  • zsh SLES 11 SP4-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 4.3.6-67.9.8.1
  • zsh SLE Module for Basesystem 15 5.5-3.3.15
  • zsh SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP3 5.0.5-6.7.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:14910-1SUSE-SU-2018:1874-1SUSE-SU-2018:1072-1

  • zsh openSUSE Tumbleweed 5.8-7.7

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11543-1

  • zsh Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +15 more 5.4.2-r1
  • zsh Alpine 3.4 5.2-r2
  • zsh Alpine 3.5 5.2-r4
  • zsh Alpine 3.6 5.3.1-r1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2018-1083

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-1083 updated cvss 7.5

zsh: Stack-based buffer overflow in gen_matches_files() at compctl.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 zsh
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-31.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-31.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-31.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-31.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3073
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) zsh 4.3.11-8.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) zsh-html 4.3.11-8.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:1932
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-31.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-31.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3073
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) zsh 4.3.11-8.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) zsh-html 4.3.11-8.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) zsh 4.3.11-8.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:1932
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-31.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3073
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) zsh-html 4.3.11-8.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:1932
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-31.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3073
show 5 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) zsh 4.3.11-8.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:1932
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) zsh 5.0.2-31.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3073
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) zsh-html 4.3.11-8.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:1932
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) zsh-html 5.0.2-31.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3073
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 zsh, zsh-html
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.59% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 48% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • zsh zsh

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-120 Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.