# CVE-2018-3971: Memory corruption in Sophos

> An attacker can trigger memory corruption in the HitmanPro.Alert driver via a crafted IRP request, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 25 Oct 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6hfq-h92h-wjrw

## What is CVE-2018-3971?

CVE-2018-3971 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Talos Sophos, published on 25 Oct 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An exploitable arbitrary write vulnerability exists in the 0x2222CC IOCTL handler functionality of Sophos HitmanPro.Alert 3.7.6.744. A specially crafted IRP request can cause the driver to write data under controlled by an attacker address, resulting in memory corruption. An attacker can send IRP request to trigger this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-123 (Write-what-where Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-3971?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Sophos Hitmanpro.alert.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-3971?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-3971 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-3971 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-3971 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Talos Sophos

- [CVE-2020-9540](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-9540/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2021-25270](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25270/): Privilege escalation in HitmanPro.Alert (medium 6.7)
- [CVE-2018-3970](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3970/): Information disclosure in Sophos (medium 4.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-3971 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-3971 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Talos Sophos, published on 25 Oct 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-2018-3971 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Talos Sophos. 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-2018-3971/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3971/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-3971
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-3971
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-3971

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3971/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.