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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.9

CVE-2018-16880 json

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's handle_rx() function in the [vhost_net] driver.

published 2019-01-29 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-8670

cvss
5.9
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 46%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's handle_rx() function in the [vhost_net] driver. A malicious virtual guest, under specific conditions, can trigger an out-of-bounds write in a kmalloc-8 slab on a virtual host which may lead to a kernel memory corruption and a system panic. Due to the nature of the flaw, privilege escalation cannot be fully ruled out. Versions from v4.16 and newer are vulnerable.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.19.20, 4.20.7
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.19.20-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16880

  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.18.0-16.17~18.04.1
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.18.0-1013.13~18.04.1
  • linux-gcp-edge Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.18.0-1007.8~18.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16880

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-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.8.1
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.8.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.8.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.8.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP1 4.12.14-197.4.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 4.12.14-197.4.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP1, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 +2 more 4.12.14-197.4.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 4.12.14-197.4.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:2430-1SUSE-SU-2019:1550-1SUSE-SU-2019:1244-1SUSE-SU-2019:1242-1SUSE-SU-2019:1241-1SUSE-SU-2019:1240-1

  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.61.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.61.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.61.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.61.1
  • kernel-vanilla openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.61.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.61.1
  • kernel-obs-build openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.61.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2019:1404-1

  • kernel CBL-Mariner 2.0 5.10.78.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-6518

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2018-16880 updated cvss 5.9

kernel: Out of bounds write in get_rx_bufs() function in drivers/vhost/net.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 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

0.56% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 46% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 5.9 CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
NVD 3.1 7.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • The Linux Foundation kernel

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.