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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2019-18183 json

pacman before 5.2 is vulnerable to arbitrary command injection in lib/libalpm/sync.c in the apply_deltas() function.

published 2020-02-24 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-7988

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.7%
EPSS 3.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 89%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

pacman before 5.2 is vulnerable to arbitrary command injection in lib/libalpm/sync.c in the apply_deltas() function. This can be exploited when unsigned databases are used. To exploit the vulnerability, the user must enable the non-default delta feature and retrieve an attacker-controlled crafted database and delta file.

Patch / fix

  • pacman_project pacman 5.2
  • pacman Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +11 more 5.2.0-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2019-18183

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • pacman Arch Linux 5.2.0-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1049

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-2019-18183 updated cvss 7.1

pacman: allows arbitrary command injection in lib/libalpm/sync.c in apply_deltas function

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    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

3.67% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • git.archlinux.org https://git.archlinux.org/pacman.git/tree/lib/libalpm/sync.c?h=v5.1.3#n767 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command

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.