CVE-2018-16396 Other in n/a
High 8.1
Published
Updated
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-16396 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2018-16396 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 16 Nov 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-2018-16396 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-2018-16396/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-16396/index.md)
Ruby fails to taint strings resulting from unpacking tainted data, potentially bypassing security checks in applications relying on taint tracking.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2018-16396?
CVE-2018-16396 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 16 Nov 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 Ruby before 2.3.8, 2.4.x before 2.4.5, 2.5.x before 2.5.2, and 2.6.x before 2.6.0-preview3. It does not taint strings that result from unpacking tainted strings with some formats.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-16396?
It affects 4 products.
Linux distribution packages (32)
ruby Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-debuginfo Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-devel Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-doc Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-irb Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-libs Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-tcltk Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-bigdecimal Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:1.2.0-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-io-console Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:0.4.2-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-json Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:1.7.7-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-minitest Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:4.3.2-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-psych Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.0-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-rake Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:0.9.6-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-rdoc Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:4.0.0-38.el7_6 |
rubygems Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.14.1-38.el7_6 |
rubygems-devel Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:2.0.14.1-38.el7_6 |
ruby Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-debuginfo Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-devel Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-doc Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-irb Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-libs Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
ruby-tcltk Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.0.648-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-bigdecimal Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:1.2.0-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-io-console Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:0.4.2-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-json Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:1.7.7-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-minitest Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:4.3.2-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-psych Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.0-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-rake Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:0.9.6-38.el7_6 |
rubygem-rdoc Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:4.0.0-38.el7_6 |
rubygems Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.14.1-38.el7_6 |
rubygems-devel Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::server | All versions | 0:2.0.14.1-38.el7_6 |
Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Ruby-Lang Ruby.
How do I fix CVE-2018-16396?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Is CVE-2018-16396 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-16396 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux
Sources
Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2018-16396, CLEANSTART-2026-DW51598, GHSA-xh4x-ph6p-vmxh, RHSA-2020:2839, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16396.