CVE-2018-16865

HIGHNVD 7.87.8
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to NVD's CVSS score.

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-05-13. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, NVD CVSS v3
7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 3.0%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

An allocation of memory without limits, that could result in the stack clashing with another memory region, was discovered in systemd-journald when many entries are sent to the journal socket. A local attacker, or a remote one if systemd-journal-remote is used, may use this flaw to crash systemd-journald or execute code with journald privileges. Versions through v240 are vulnerable.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8HIGHmedium confidence
EG Risk
36
EG Risk 36/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity78% × 45%
The EG Score, 7.8 of 10.
Exploitation3.0% × 40%
FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at every mission impact level.
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
EPSS PROB
3.0%
EPSS %ILE
87th
KEV
Not listed

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at every mission impact level.

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.

Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)60 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

January 11, 2019

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (10)

Auto-updated Oct 12, 2026
🔬 Proof of concept available. Patch available. Sources: redhat.
Red HatMentions a patch (unverified)

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0342
Red HatMentions a patch (unverified)

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 Extended Update Support.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0271
Red HatMentions a patch (unverified)

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 Extended Update Support.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0204
Red HatMentions a patch (unverified)

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0049
Red HatMentions a patch (unverified)
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2019:0327
Web page

CVE-2018-16865 - PSIRT.COM

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106525
Web page🟡 PoC Available

oss-security - CVE-2021-33910: Denial of service (stack exhaustion) in systemd (PID 1)

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/07/20/2
Web page

oss-security - Re: System Down: A systemd-journald exploit

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/05/10/4
Web page

Full Disclosure: Re: System Down: A systemd-journald exploit

http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/May/21
Web page

Packet Storm

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152841/System-Down-A-systemd-journald-Exploit.html

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2018-16865(2)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(7)

Vendor / EcosystemFix (by version range) / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntuudev-udeb (229-4ubuntu21.15) @ xenial2026-05-27ubuntu
redhatsystemd-0:219-30.el7_3.132019-08-07redhat
redhatrhvm-appliance-0:4.2-20190129.0.el72019-02-18redhat
redhatredhat-virtualization-host-0:4.2-20190129.0.el7_62019-02-13redhat
redhatsystemd-0:219-42.el7_4.132019-02-04redhat
redhatsystemd-0:219-57.el7_5.52019-01-29redhat
redhatsystemd-0:219-62.el7_6.22019-01-14redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(6 across 6 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
systemd—
  • every version up to 240-4: fixed in 240-4
—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
systemd—
  • every version up to 240-4: fixed in 240-4
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
systemd—
  • every version up to 240-4: fixed in 240-4
—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
systemd—
  • every version up to 240-4: fixed in 240-4
—
Debian:8(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
systemd215-17 ... 215-17+deb8u8 (9 versions)
  • every version up to 215-17+deb8u9: fixed in 215-17+deb8u9
—
Debian:9(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
systemd232-25 ... 232-25+deb9u6 (7 versions)
  • every version up to 232-25+deb9u7: fixed in 232-25+deb9u7
—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Additional Vendor Advisories

(6)

Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 30× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 92 of 167 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 8 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 75 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-12 20:15 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-10-12 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 87th percentile
  3. 2026-10-12 00:39 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-10-11 13:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 87th percentile
  5. 2026-10-10 19:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 87th percentile
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  10. 2026-10-05 17:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
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  13. 2026-09-30 14:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  14. 2026-09-30 09:55 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-09-28 14:12 UTCOSV refresh
  16. 2026-09-28 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  17. 2026-09-27 13:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  18. 2026-09-26 15:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
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  25. 2026-09-18 19:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
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  1. 2026-09-17 19:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  2. 2026-09-16 14:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  3. 2026-09-16 05:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
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  6. 2026-09-12 14:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
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  8. 2026-09-10 09:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  9. 2026-09-08 18:34 UTCOSV refresh
  10. 2026-09-07 15:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  11. 2026-09-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  12. 2026-09-05 15:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
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  23. 2026-08-23 00:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  24. 2026-08-22 03:37 UTCOSV refresh
  25. 2026-08-21 23:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  26. 2026-08-20 22:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
  27. 2026-08-19 17:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 86th percentile
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  39. 2026-08-06 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 85th percentile
  40. 2026-08-06 07:24 UTCOSV refresh
  41. 2026-08-04 15:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 85th percentile
  42. 2026-08-02 02:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 85th percentile
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  50. 2026-07-23 01:34 UTCEG score recompute
  51. 2026-07-22 22:14 UTCEG score recompute
  52. 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 85th percentile
  53. 2026-07-21 15:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 85th percentile
  54. 2026-07-21 00:17 UTCOSV refresh
  55. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 85th percentile
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  67. 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 3.0% · 85th percentile

Related CVEs(same product + same vendor + same CWE)

Same vendor

3 shown

redhat:RHSA-2019:0049 · ubuntu:USN-3855-1

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2018-16865?
CVE-2018-16865 is a high-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on January 11, 2019. An allocation of memory without limits, that could result in the stack clashing with another memory region, was discovered in systemd-journald when many entries are sent to the journal socket. A local attacker, or a remote one if systemd-journal-remote is used, may use this flaw to crash…
When was CVE-2018-16865 made public?
CVE-2018-16865 was made public on January 9, 2019: that is the date its CVE record's CNA, Red Hat, Inc., gives for when the vulnerability was made public. The CVE record itself was published on January 11, 2019. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of November 21, 2024; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2018-16865 actively exploited?
CVE-2018-16865 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 3.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (87th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2018-16865?
CVE-2018-16865 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2018-16865?
A fix for CVE-2018-16865 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2018-16865 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

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