# CVE-2018-15499: Race condition in n/a

> Local attackers can cause a Blue Screen of Death in GEAR Software drivers via a race condition involving unchecked user-mode memory availability.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 24 Aug 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cjf3-2xc5-qx57

## What is CVE-2018-15499?

CVE-2018-15499 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 24 Aug 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

GEAR Software products that include GEARAspiWDM.sys, 2.2.5.0, allow local users to cause a denial of service (Race Condition and BSoD on Windows) by not checking that user-mode memory is available right before writing to it. A check is only performed at the beginning of a long subroutine.

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-15499?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gearsoftware Gearaspiwdm.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-15499?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-15499 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-15499 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15499 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- PoC code for CVE-2018-15499 (exploit race condition for BSoD) (github_poc): https://github.com/DownWithUp/CVE-2018-15499

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-15499 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-15499 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 24 Aug 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15499 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-2018-15499/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15499/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-15499
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-15499
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-15499

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15499/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.