# CVE-2018-15378: Clam AntiVirus unmew11() Denial of Service Vulnerability

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in ClamAV by submitting a specially crafted EXE file that triggers an invalid memory read in the MEW unpacker.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Oct 2018
- **Updated:** 26 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2018-15378, CLEANSTART-2026-UJ35134, DEBIAN-CVE-2018-15378, DLA-1553-1, GHSA-f539-qjx8-227f, MGASA-2018-0406, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-15378, USN-3789-1

## What is CVE-2018-15378?

CVE-2018-15378 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 15 Oct 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A vulnerability in ClamAV versions prior to 0.100.2 could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to an error related to the MEW unpacker within the "unmew11()" function (libclamav/mew.c), which can be exploited to trigger an invalid read memory access via a specially crafted EXE file.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-15378?

It affects 3 products.


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

## How do I fix CVE-2018-15378?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-15378 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15378 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-2018-15378 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-15378 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 15 Oct 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15378 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-2018-15378/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15378/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-15378
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-15378
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-15378

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15378/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.