CVE-2018-15749
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 Pulse Secure Desktop (macOS) 5.3RX before 5.3R5 and 9.0R1 has a Format String Vulnerability.
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 · moderate confidencePulse Secure Desktop client for macOS versions 5.3RX before 5.3R5 and 9.0R1 contains a format string vulnerability. This class of flaw occurs when untrusted user input is passed to format string functions (e.g., printf, sprintf) without proper sanitization, potentially allowing arbitrary memory reads/writes or code execution.
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= 5.3r1= 5.3r1.1= 5.3r2= 5.3r3= 5.3r4= 5.3r4.1= 5.3r4.2= 5.3rx= 9.0r1CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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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Confirm Pulse Secure Desktop is installedOpen Finder, go to /Applications, and look for 'Pulse Secure.app'. Alternatively, run: ls /Applications | grep -i pulseAffected if The application is not present in /Applications, then not affected.
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Find the installed version numberRight-click Pulse Secure.app, select 'Get Info', and check the Version field. Or run: defaults read /Applications/Pulse\ Secure.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionStringAffected if If no version is displayed or the app is not found, the version cannot be determined.
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Compare version against affected listCheck if the installed version matches any of these: 5.3r1, 5.3r1.1, 5.3r2, 5.3r3, 5.3r4, 5.3r4.1, 5.3r4.2, 5.3rx, or 9.0r1. Also note that any 5.3RX version before 5.3R5 is affected.Affected if The version matches any listed affected version or is a 5.3RX version earlier than 5.3R5.
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Verify exact version string for 5.3RX branchIf version shows as 5.3rx (case-insensitive), compare to the fixed version 5.3r5. The app is vulnerable if the numeric portion after 5.3r is less than 5.Affected if Version is 5.3rx or 5.3r0 through 5.3r4 (any variant like 5.3r4.1, 5.3r4.2).
A macOS system is affected if Pulse Secure Desktop version 5.3r1 through 5.3r4 (any subvariant) or version 9.0r1 is installed, or if any 5.3RX release earlier than 5.3R5 is present.
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 dataApply the vendor-supplied patch (upgrade to Pulse Secure Desktop 5.3R5 or later for the 5.3RX branch). No workarounds are documented for format string vulnerabilities; patching is the primary remediation path.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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-2018-15749 — 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-2018-15749 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
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