# CVE-2018-10938: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service via infinite loop in CIPSO handling, requiring specific LSM and NetLabel configurations.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Aug 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2018-10938, GHSA-c4j8-6xxf-p927, SUSE-SU-2018:2938-1, SUSE-SU-2018:2964-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-10938

## What is CVE-2018-10938?

CVE-2018-10938 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 27 Aug 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel present since v4.0-rc1 and through v4.13-rc4. A crafted network packet sent remotely by an attacker may force the kernel to enter an infinite loop in the cipso_v4_optptr() function in net/ipv4/cipso_ipv4.c leading to a denial-of-service. A certain non-default configuration of LSM (Linux Security Module) and NetLabel should be set up on a system before an attacker could leverage this flaw.

Weakness: CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-10938?

It affects 3 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `kernel-livepatch-SLE15_Update_2` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 | All versions | 4-2.1 |
| `kernel-livepatch-SLE15_Update_4` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 | All versions | 2-2.1 |

Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-10938?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2018-10938 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-10938 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2020-11651](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11651/): SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-7247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7247/): OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-16928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-16928/): Exim Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-6789](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6789/): Exim Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-2590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2590/): Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-10938 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-10938 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 27 Aug 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-10938 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10938/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10938/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-10938
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-10938
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-10938

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10938/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.