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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2018-20483 json

set_file_metadata in xattr.c in GNU Wget before 1.20.1 stores a file's origin URL in the user.xdg.origin.url metadata attribute of the exte…

published 2018-12-26 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-13037

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 51%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

set_file_metadata in xattr.c in GNU Wget before 1.20.1 stores a file's origin URL in the user.xdg.origin.url metadata attribute of the extended attributes of the downloaded file, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information (e.g., credentials contained in the URL) by reading this attribute, as demonstrated by getfattr. This also applies to Referer information in the user.xdg.referrer.url metadata attribute. According to 2016-07-22 in the Wget ChangeLog, user.xdg.origin.url was partially based on the behavior of fwrite_xattr in tool_xattr.c in curl.

Patch / fix

  • gnu wget 1.20.1
  • wget Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.20.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-20483

  • wget Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1.19.4-1ubuntu2.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-20483

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

  • curl RHEL 8 7.61.1-11.el8
  • libcurl RHEL 8 7.61.1-11.el8
  • libcurl-minimal RHEL 8 7.61.1-11.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:3701

  • wget SLE Module for Basesystem 15 1.19.5-3.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:0093-1

  • wget openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.21.1-2.2
  • wget openSUSE Leap 15.0 1.19.5-lp150.2.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11510-1openSUSE-SU-2019:0057-1

  • wget Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +16 more 1.20.1-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2018-20483

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-2018-20483 updated cvss 5.5

wget: Information exposure in set_file_metadata function in xattr.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 curl, libcurl
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) curl 7.61.1-11.el8, libcurl 7.61.1-11.el8, libcurl-minimal 7.61.1-11.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:3701
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 curl, wget Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 curl, wget, libcurl Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 wget Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 wget
    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

0.66% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 51% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • twitter.com https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1077676739877232640 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

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 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

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.