CVE-2018-13217
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 · uneditedThe sell function of a smart contract implementation for CoinToken, an Ethereum token, has an integer overflow in which "amount * sellPrice" can be zero, consequently reducing a seller's assets.
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 confidenceThe CoinToken smart contract has an integer overflow vulnerability in its sell function where the calculation 'amount * sellPrice' can overflow to zero. This occurs when specific token amounts and sell prices are multiplied, causing the result to wrap around to zero due to arithmetic overflow, leaving sellers with zero proceeds despite successfully selling their tokens.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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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Locate CoinToken contract in your environmentSearch your smart contract deployment artifacts, blockchain explorers, or project source code for a contract named 'CoinToken' or 'Cointoken'. Verify the contract address if deployed on a blockchain.Affected if CoinToken contract is found in your deployment artifacts or on-chain
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Verify sell function existsUse contract introspection tools (such as web3.js, ethers.js, or blockchain explorers) to check if the contract has a 'sell' function, or review the contract source code for a public sell function that accepts an amount parameter.Affected if A sell function accepting token amount as input is present
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Inspect the multiplication logic for overflow vulnerabilityReview the contract source code, focusing on the sell function implementation. Look specifically for a calculation pattern where 'amount * sellPrice' (or equivalent variables) is used without SafeMath library or explicit overflow checks.Affected if The code contains 'amount * sellPrice' multiplication performed without SafeMath library or Solidity 0.8+ overflow checks
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Confirm Solidity compiler versionCheck the Solidity compiler version used to compile the CoinToken contract. This information is typically found in contract metadata, npm packages, or by querying the contract bytecode on-chain for the metadata hash.Affected if The contract was compiled with Solidity versions prior to 0.8.0 (versions 0.7.x and earlier lack built-in overflow protection)
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Check for SafeMath library usageSearch the contract source code for 'using SafeMath for' statements or library import declarations. Also verify if arithmetic operations in the sell function use SafeMath methods like .mul() instead of the * operator.Affected if SafeMath library is NOT imported or NOT used for the multiplication operation in the sell function
Your environment is affected if the CoinToken contract with a sell function is deployed and the 'amount * sellPrice' calculation uses direct multiplication without SafeMath or Solidity 0.8+ overflow protections.
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 dataremediate by implementing SafeMath library operations for arithmetic or upgrading to Solidity 0.8+ which includes built-in overflow checks, then thoroughly test edge cases around the multiplication boundary values.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-13217 — 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-2018-13217 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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