In the ffgphd and ffgtkn functions in NASA CFITSIO 3.42, specially crafted images parsed via the library can cause a stack-based buffer ove…

published 2018-04-16 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-15632

cvss: 8.8; version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 3.0%; EPSS 3.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 87%
public exploits: 0; none known

In the ffgphd and ffgtkn functions in NASA CFITSIO 3.42, specially crafted images parsed via the library can cause a stack-based buffer overflow overwriting arbitrary data. An attacker can deliver an FIT image to trigger this vulnerability and potentially gain code execution.

Patch / fix

distros 1

cfitsio Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.430-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-3846

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-2018-3846 updated 2026-11-04 cvss 7.4

cfitsio: Unsafe use of sprintf() can allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 cfitsio Red Hat OpenShift Enterprise 2 cfitsio
affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”

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

3.02% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

talosintelligence.com https://www.talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2018-0529 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.0	8.8	CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	8.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	6.8	AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

Talos NASA CFITSIO

Classification

Weakness

CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write

References

talosintelligence.com /vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2018-0529
exploit, third-party-advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org /archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/K46I2MFPCEOGC5LLDXZSWPB3EBPON3KA/
vendor-advisory
security.gentoo.org /glsa/202101-24
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2018-3846
NVD CVE-2018-3846

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