# CVE-2018-20699: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can cause denial of service in Docker Engine by providing large integer values for CPU or memory set parameters, leading to excessive memory consumption.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.9 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 12 Jan 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** AZL-44109, AZL-45387, DEBIAN-CVE-2018-20699, GHSA-m9q8-9m2h-84gh, MGASA-2019-0076, RHSA-2019:0487, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-20699

## What is CVE-2018-20699?

CVE-2018-20699 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux Server, published on 12 Jan 2019. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Docker Engine before 18.09 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (dockerd memory consumption) via a large integer in a --cpuset-mems or --cpuset-cpus value, related to daemon/daemon_unix.go, pkg/parsers/parsers.go, and pkg/sysinfo/sysinfo.go.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-20699?

It affects 2 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `docker` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |
| `docker-client` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |
| `docker-common` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |
| `docker-debuginfo` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |
| `docker-logrotate` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |
| `docker-lvm-plugin` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |
| `docker-novolume-plugin` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |
| `docker-rhel-push-plugin` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |
| `docker-v1.10-migrator` | Red Hat:rhel_extras_other:7 | All versions | 2:1.13.1-94.gitb2f74b2.el7 |

Products: Docker Engine, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-20699?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-20699 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-20699 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Enterprise Linux Server

- [CVE-2026-34040](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-34040/): Moby: AuthZ plugin bypass with oversized request body (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2026-42306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42306/): Moby: Race condition in docker cp allows bind mount redirection to host path (high 7.2)
- [CVE-2026-33997](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33997/): Moby: Off-by-one error in plugin privilege validation (medium 6.8)
- [CVE-2026-41568](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-41568/): Moby: Race condition in docker cp allows creation of arbitrary empty files on the host via symlink swap (medium 6.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-20699 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-20699 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux Server, published on 12 Jan 2019. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-20699 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Redhat Enterprise Linux Server. 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-2018-20699/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-20699/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-20699
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-20699
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-20699

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-20699/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.