CVE-2018-18751 Use after free in n/a
Critical 9.8
Published
Updated
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-18751 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2018-18751 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 28 Oct 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-2018-18751 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-2018-18751/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-18751/index.md)
A double free vulnerability in GNU gettext allows attackers to cause denial of service or potentially execute arbitrary code via crafted input.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2018-18751?
CVE-2018-18751 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 28 Oct 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 GNU gettext 0.19.8. There is a double free in default_add_message in read-catalog.c, related to an invalid free in po_gram_parse in po-gram-gen.y, as demonstrated by lt-msgfmt.
Weakness: CWE-415
Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-18751?
It affects 3 products.
Linux distribution packages (40)
gettext AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-common-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-libs AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
emacs-gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-common-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-libs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
emacs-gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-common-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-libs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
emacs-gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-common-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-libs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
emacs-gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-common-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext-libs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7 |
gettext Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-common-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-devel-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-libs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
gettext-libs-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-17.el8 |
emacs-gettext Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7_6 |
gettext Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7_6 |
gettext-common-devel Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7_6 |
gettext-debuginfo Red Hat:rhel_eus:7.6::computenode | All versions | 0:0.19.8.1-3.el7_6 |
Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Gnu Gettext, Redhat Enterprise Linux.
How do I fix CVE-2018-18751?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
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-2018-18751 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-18751 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux
Sources
Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2018-18751, ALSA-2019:3643, DEBIAN-CVE-2018-18751, GHSA-3vvp-8645-4qmr, JLSEC-2025-174, MGASA-2018-0464 and 12 more.