CVE-2018-10775 : What You Need to Know

CVE-2018-10775 was published on May 7, 2018, by MITRE. It involves a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in the _fields_add function within the libbibcore.a library of bibutils version 6.2, leading to a denial of service attack.

Understanding CVE-2018-10775

This CVE entry describes a specific vulnerability that can be exploited remotely to cause a denial of service by crashing the application.

What is CVE-2018-10775?

The vulnerability lies in the _fields_add function in the fields.c file of the libbibcore.a library in bibutils version 6.2. An attacker can exploit this flaw to trigger a NULL pointer dereference, resulting in a denial of service, as demonstrated by the end2xml exploit.

The Impact of CVE-2018-10775

The impact of this vulnerability is the potential for a remote attacker to crash the application, leading to a denial of service.

Technical Details of CVE-2018-10775

This section provides more technical insights into the vulnerability.

Vulnerability Description

The vulnerability is a NULL pointer dereference in the _fields_add function within the libbibcore.a library in bibutils version 6.2.

Affected Systems and Versions

Affected Version: bibutils version 6.2
Systems using the libbibcore.a library

Exploitation Mechanism

The vulnerability can be exploited remotely by triggering the NULL pointer dereference in the _fields_add function.

Mitigation and Prevention

To address CVE-2018-10775, consider the following mitigation strategies:

Immediate Steps to Take

Update bibutils to a non-vulnerable version.
Monitor for any unusual crashes or denial of service incidents.

Long-Term Security Practices

Regularly update software and libraries to patch known vulnerabilities.
Implement network security measures to prevent remote exploitation.

Patching and Updates

Apply patches provided by the software vendor to fix the vulnerability.