CVE-2018-14619 Use after free in kernel

What is CVE-2018-14619?

CVE-2018-14619 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 30 Aug 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A flaw was found in the crypto subsystem of the Linux kernel before version kernel-4.15-rc4. The "null skcipher" was being dropped when each af_alg_ctx was freed instead of when the aead_tfm was freed. This can cause the null skcipher to be freed while it is still in use leading to a local user being able to crash the system or possibly escalate privileges.

Weakness: CWE-20, CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-14619?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2018-14619?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2018-14619 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-14619 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

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

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2018-14619, GHSA-r8cr-q337-j896.