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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.2

CVE-2018-10840 json

Linux kernel is vulnerable to a heap-based buffer overflow in the fs/ext4/xattr.c:ext4_xattr_set_entry() function.

published 2018-07-16 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-2909

cvss
5.2
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 52%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Linux kernel is vulnerable to a heap-based buffer overflow in the fs/ext4/xattr.c:ext4_xattr_set_entry() function. An attacker could exploit this by operating on a mounted crafted ext4 image.

Patch / fix

  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.17.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-10840

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-33.36
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1020.20
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1018.19~16.04.2
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1018.19
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-33.36~16.04.1
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1020.20
  • linux-oem Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1017.20
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1022.22~16.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-10840

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

  • kernel-alt RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a
  • perf RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a
  • kernel RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a
  • python-perf RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a
  • kernel-tools RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a
  • kernel-tools-libs RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a
  • kernel-abi-whitelists RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:0162

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-2018-10840 updated cvss 5.2

kernel: Heap-based buffer overflow in fs/ext4/xattr.c:ext4_xattr_set_entry() with crafted ext4 image

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) perf 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a, kernel 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a, kernel-alt 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a, python-perf 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a, kernel-tools 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a, kernel-tools-libs 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.14.0-115.5.1.el7a
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:0162
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-core, kernel-tools, python3-perf, +17 more Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    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

0.67% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 52% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.redhat.com https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2018-10840 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 5.2 CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
NVD 3.1 6.6 CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • kernel heap-based buffer overflow in fs/ext4/xattr.c

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

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.