CVE-2018-12404
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 · uneditedA cached side channel attack during handshakes using RSA encryption could allow for the decryption of encrypted content. This is a variant of the Adaptive Chosen Ciphertext attack (AKA Bleichenbacher attack) and affects all NSS versions prior to NSS 3.41.
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 confidenceA cached side-channel vulnerability in NSS (Network Security Services) allows decryption of encrypted TLS handshake content through a variant of the Bleichenbacher (Adaptive Chosen Ciphertext) attack. The attack exploits timing differences and cached information during RSA-encrypted handshakes to gradually recover plaintext.
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< 3.41CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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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Identify installed NSS versionRun 'nss-config --version' or locate the NSS library (commonly /usr/lib/libnss3.so or /usr/lib64/libnss3.so) and query its version using 'objdump -p <path_to_libnss3.so> | grep Version'Affected if The installed version is earlier than 3.41 (for example, 3.40, 3.39, or older)
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Check for NSS in package managerQuery the system's package manager for the installed NSS package: on RHEL/CentOS use 'rpm -qa | grep nss', on Debian/Ubuntu use 'dpkg -l | grep nss', or on openSUSE use 'rpm -qa | grep nss'Affected if The packaged NSS version listed is below 3.41
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Identify applications using NSSFind processes or applications linked against the vulnerable NSS library using 'ldd <binary>' on known TLS-enabled binaries, or use 'ldconfig -p | grep nss3' to see what libraries reference NSSAffected if Any application (such as web servers, mail clients, or custom software) dynamically links to a vulnerable NSS version
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Check if RSA key exchange is enabledReview TLS server configuration files to determine if RSA-based cipher suites are in use. Common locations include Apache config (/etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf), Nginx config (nginx.conf), or application-specific TLS settingsAffected if RSA cipher suites (TLS_RSA_*) are enabled and the server uses a vulnerable NSS version
Your environment is affected if any installed NSS version is earlier than 3.41 and that library handles TLS connections using RSA key exchange.
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 data3.41
Upgrade NSS to version 3.41 or later to incorporate the fix for this vulnerability.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-2018-12404 — 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-2018-12404 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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