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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2018-9234 json

GnuPG 2.2.4 and 2.2.5 does not enforce a configuration in which key certification requires an offline master Certify key, which results in…

published 2018-04-04 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-20828

cvss
7.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.0%
EPSS 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 80%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

GnuPG 2.2.4 and 2.2.5 does not enforce a configuration in which key certification requires an offline master Certify key, which results in apparently valid certifications that occurred only with access to a signing subkey.

Patch / fix

  • gnupg2 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.2.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-9234

  • gnupg2 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.2.4-1ubuntu1.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-9234

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

  • gpg2 SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 2.0.24-9.14.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:3857-1

  • gpg2 openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.2.27-2.4

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10815-1

  • gnupg Arch Linux 2.2.5-2

arch linux advisories AVG-943

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-2018-9234 updated cvss 2.2

GnuPG: Unenforced configuration allows for apparently valid certifications actually signed by signing subkeys

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 gnupg, gnupg2
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 gnupg2, gnupg2-smime Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 gnupg2, gnupg2-smime
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 gnupg, gnupg2, gnupg2-smime
    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

1.96% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 80% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness

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.