CVE-2018-1061 Denial of service in python

What is CVE-2018-1061?

CVE-2018-1061 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 19 Jun 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

python before versions 2.7.15, 3.4.9, 3.5.6rc1, 3.6.5rc1 and 3.7.0 is vulnerable to catastrophic backtracking in the difflib.IS_LINE_JUNK method. An attacker could use this flaw to cause denial of service.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-1061?

It affects 8 products.

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Python Python, Redhat Ansible Tower, Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop and 2 more.

How do I fix CVE-2018-1061?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2018-1061 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-1061 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

• CVE-2020-11651 SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2020-7247 OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2019-16928 Exim Out-of-bounds Write Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-6789 Exim Buffer Overflow Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2015-2590 Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2018-1061, AZL-109626, DEBIAN-CVE-2018-1061, GHSA-gf62-w85x-fjpv, PSF-2018-4, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-1061.