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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2018-11319 json

Syntastic (aka vim-syntastic) through 3.9.0 does not properly handle searches for configuration files (it searches the current directory up…

published 2018-05-20 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-3357

cvss
7.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.8%
EPSS 2.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 86%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Syntastic (aka vim-syntastic) through 3.9.0 does not properly handle searches for configuration files (it searches the current directory up to potentially the root). This improper handling might be exploited for arbitrary code execution via a malicious gcc plugin, if an attacker has write access to a directory that is a parent of the base directory of the project being checked. NOTE: exploitation is more difficult after 3.8.0 because filename prediction may be needed.

Patch / fix

  • vim-syntastic Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.9.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-11319

  • vim-syntastic Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 3.7.0-1+deb9u2build0.16.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-11319

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

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-2018-11319 updated cvss 7.3

vim-syntastic: Improper handling of searches for configuration files can lead to arbitrary code execution

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    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

2.81% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 86% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/vim-syntastic/syntastic/issues/2170 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • bugs.debian.org https://bugs.debian.org/894736 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 8.5 AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory

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.