CVE-2018-12244
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 · uneditedSEP (Mac client) prior to and including 12.1 RU6 MP9 and prior to 14.2 RU1 may be susceptible to a CSV/DDE injection (also known as formula injection) vulnerability, which is a type of issue whereby an application or website allows untrusted input into CSV files.
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 confidenceThis is a CSV/DDE injection (formula injection) vulnerability in the Symantec Endpoint Protection Mac client. The application allows untrusted input to be embedded into CSV files without proper sanitization, potentially enabling attackers to inject malicious formulas that could execute commands or exfiltrate data when the CSV is opened in spreadsheet applications.
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= 11.0= 12.1= 14= 14.0.0= 14.0.1= 14.2CVSS 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
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm SEP Mac client is installedCheck for the presence of 'Symantec Endpoint Protection.app' in /Applications or run: ls /Applications | grep -i symantecAffected if The application is not found, meaning SEP Mac is not installed and this CVE does not apply
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Identify installed SEP Mac versionOpen the SEP client UI and navigate to Help > About Symantec Endpoint Protection, or run: defaults read /Applications/Symantec\ Endpoint\ Protection.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersionAffected if The version is one of: 11.0, 12.1, 14, 14.0.0, 14.0.1, or 14.2 (these are the affected versions)
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Determine if CSV export or reporting features are usedReview SEP Mac usage - check if reports, logs, or lists are exported to CSV format through the client interface or scheduled reportsAffected if CSV exports are generated from SEP Mac (the vulnerability triggers when untrusted input is embedded in exported CSV files)
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Inspect CSV export behavior (if applicable)Export a report or log as CSV from the SEP Mac client and examine the output file for proper escaping of special characters like =, +, -, @, tab, and CRAffected if CSV output contains unescaped formula characters at the beginning of cells, indicating lack of sanitization
You are affected if SEP Mac is installed with version 11.0, 12.1, 14, 14.0.0, 14.0.1, or 14.2 AND you use CSV export or reporting features that could contain untrusted input.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpgrade the SEP Mac client to version 14.2 RU1 or later, or 12.1 RU6 MP10 or later to obtain the security fix that properly sanitizes CSV output.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-12244 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-12244 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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