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BibutilsApplication · Bibutils Project

CVE-2018-10774

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-05-07
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 6.2 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Read access violation in the isiin_keyword function in isiin.c in libbibutils.a in bibutils through 6.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash), as demonstrated by isi2xml.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

A read access violation (out-of-bounds read) in the isiin_keyword function in libbibutils allows remote attackers to crash applications (like isi2xml) by providing malformed bibliographic input. The function attempts to read from an invalid memory location when processing keyword data.

MitigationUpgrade bibutils to version 6.3 or later which contains the patch; alternatively, validate and sanitize bibliographic input files before processing to prevent malformed data from reaching the vulnerable function.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
BibutilsApplication
Affected:<= 6.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed bibutils version
    Run 'bibutils -v' or 'isi2xml -v' to display version information, or check your package manager for the installed bibutils package version
    Affected if The installed version is 6.2 or lower
  2. Identify bibutils binaries and libraries
    Run 'which isi2xml bib2xml xml2bib' to locate bibutils executables, and run 'ldd' on them to confirm they link to libbibutils
    Affected if bibutils executables exist and link to libbibutils version 6.2 or lower
  3. Locate libbibutils library file
    Search for 'libbibutils.so' or 'libbibutils.a' in system library directories using 'find /usr -name libbibutils* 2>/dev/null'
    Affected if libbibutils library exists with version 6.2 or lower
  4. Inspect bibliographic input processing
    Review any scripts or workflows that run isi2xml or other bibutils tools and examine what input files they process
    Affected if The tool processes bibliographic input files from untrusted or external sources

You are affected if bibutils version 6.2 or lower is installed and you use tools like isi2xml to process bibliographic data

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 6.2
Interim mitigation

Upgrade bibutils to version 6.3 or later which contains the patch; alternatively, validate and sanitize bibliographic input files before processing to prevent malformed data from reaching the vulnerable function.

Fix this in Bibutils Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,380
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-10774 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data