libelf/elf_end.c in elfutils 0.173 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (double free and application crash) or possibly hav…

published 2018-09-03 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-8245

cvss: 9.8; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 3.7%; EPSS 3.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 89%
public exploits: 0; none known

libelf/elf_end.c in elfutils 0.173 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (double free and application crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact because it tries to decompress twice.

Patch / fix

distros 6

debian ubuntu red hat suse opensuse alpine

elfutils Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.175-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16402

elfutils Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 0.165-3ubuntu1.2
elfutils Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 0.170-0.4ubuntu0.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16402

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

elfutils RHEL 7 0.176-2.el7
elfutils-libs RHEL 7 0.176-2.el7
elfutils-libelf RHEL 7 0.176-2.el7
elfutils-default-yama-scope RHEL 7 0.176-2.el7
elfutils RHEL 7.6 EUS 0.172-4.el7_6
elfutils-libs RHEL 7.6 EUS 0.172-4.el7_6
elfutils-libelf RHEL 7.6 EUS 0.172-4.el7_6
elfutils-default-yama-scope RHEL 7.6 EUS 0.172-4.el7_6

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:1471 RHSA-2019:2197

dwarves SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, SLE Micro 5.2, SLE Micro 5.1 +2 more 1.22-150300.7.3.1
elfutils SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, SLE Micro 5.2, SLE Micro 5.1 +2 more 0.177-150300.11.3.1
elfutils SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 0.168-4.5.3

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:2614-2 SUSE-SU-2022:2614-1 SUSE-SU-2019:1486-1

elfutils openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Leap 15.0 0.168-lp151.4.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2019:1590-1

elfutils Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +10 more 0.174-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2018-16402

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-2018-16402 updated 2026-11-07 cvss 4.3

elfutils: Double-free due to double decompression of sections in crafted ELF causes crash

Red Hat Virtualization 4 elfutils
affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.4 for RHEL 7 Server ansible-tower-34/ansible-tower-memcached 1.4.15-28, ansible-tower-35/ansible-tower-memcached 1.4.15-28, ansible-tower-37/ansible-tower-memcached-rhel7 1.4.15-28
fixed: vendor fix RHBA-2020:0547
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) elfutils 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libs 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) elfutils-devel 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-debuginfo 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-devel-static 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) elfutils 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libs 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.176-2.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2197
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode EUS (v. 7.6) elfutils 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libs 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libelf 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.172-4.el7_6
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1471
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) elfutils-devel 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-debuginfo 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-devel-static 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.176-2.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2197
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional EUS (v. 7.6) elfutils-devel 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-debuginfo 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-devel-static 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libelf-devel 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.172-4.el7_6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) elfutils 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libs 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libelf 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.172-4.el7_6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) elfutils-debuginfo 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-devel-static 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.172-4.el7_6
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1471
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) elfutils 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libs 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.176-2.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2197
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.6) elfutils 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libs 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libelf 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.172-4.el7_6
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1471

show 4 more

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) elfutils-debuginfo 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-devel-static 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.176-2.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2197
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional EUS (v. 7.6) elfutils-debuginfo 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-devel-static 0.172-4.el7_6, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.172-4.el7_6
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1471
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) elfutils 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libs 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-default-yama-scope 0.176-2.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) elfutils-debuginfo 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-devel-static 0.176-2.el7, elfutils-libelf-devel-static 0.176-2.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2197
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 elfutils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 elfutils, elfutils-libs, elfutils-libelf Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 elfutils, elfutils-libs, elfutils-libelf, elfutils-default-yama-scope
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

3.69% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

sourceware.org https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23528 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	9.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	7.5	AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness

CWE-415 Double Free

References

sourceware.org /bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23528
exploit, issue-tracking, third-party-advisory
usn.ubuntu.com /4012-1/
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory
lists.opensuse.org /opensuse-security-announce/2019-06/msg00052.html
vendor-advisory, mailing-list, third-party-advisory
access.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2019:2197
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory
lists.apache.org /thread.html/r1b103833cb5bc8466e24ff0ecc5e75b45a705334ab6a444e64e840a0%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E
mailing-list
lists.debian.org /debian-lts-announce/2021/10/msg00030.html
mailing-list, third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2018-16402
NVD CVE-2018-16402

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.

Summary