# CVE-2018-16452: Denial of service in n/a

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in tcpdump by triggering stack exhaustion via recursive SMB parser input.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 3 Oct 2019
- **Updated:** 3 Dec 2025
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2018-16452, DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16452, GHSA-q8wg-hg8m-chwf, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16452

## What is CVE-2018-16452?

CVE-2018-16452 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Tcpdump Tcpdump, published on 3 Oct 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The SMB parser in tcpdump before 4.9.3 has stack exhaustion in smbutil.c:smb_fdata() via recursion.

Weakness: CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-16452?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Tcpdump Tcpdump.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-16452?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-16452 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-16452 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Tcpdump Tcpdump

- [CVE-2018-10103](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10103/): tcpdump before 4.9.3 mishandles the printing of SMB data (issue 1 of 2). (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-10105](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10105/): Denial of service in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-12893](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12893/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-12894](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12894/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-12895](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12895/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-16452 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-16452 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Tcpdump Tcpdump, published on 3 Oct 2019. 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-2018-16452 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Tcpdump Tcpdump. 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-2018-16452/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-16452/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-16452
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16452
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-16452

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-16452/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.