# CVE-2018-12520: Weak cryptography in n/a

> Attackers can hijack user sessions and escalate privileges due to deterministic session ID generation in ntopng.

- **Severity:** High 8.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 5 Jul 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-mx87-47cg-9wpg, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-12520, USN-4842-1

## What is CVE-2018-12520?

CVE-2018-12520 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 5 Jul 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in ntopng 3.4 before 3.4.180617. The PRNG involved in the generation of session IDs is not seeded at program startup. This results in deterministic session IDs being allocated for active user sessions. An attacker with foreknowledge of the operating system and standard library in use by the host running the service and the username of the user whose session they're targeting can abuse the deterministic random number generation in order to hijack the user's session, thus escalating their access.

Weakness: CWE-335 (Incorrect Usage of Seeds in Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG))

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-12520?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ntop Ntopng.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-12520?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-12520 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-12520 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- ntop-ng < 3.4.180617 - Authentication Bypass (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2026-38968](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-38968/): Weak cryptography in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-5473](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5473/): Cross-site request forgery in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2017-7458](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7458/): Null dereference in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-7459](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7459/): Other in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-7416](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7416/): Cross-site scripting in n/a (medium 6.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-12520 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-12520 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 5 Jul 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-2018-12520 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2018-12520/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12520/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-12520
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-12520
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-12520

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12520/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.