FreeBSDOperating system
CVE-2018-17161
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 · uneditedIn FreeBSD before 11.2-STABLE(r348229), 11.2-RELEASE-p7, 12.0-STABLE(r342228), and 12.0-RELEASE-p1, insufficient validation of network-provided data in bootpd may make it possible for a malicious attacker to craft a bootp packet which could cause a stack buffer overflow. It is possible that the buffer overflow could lead to a Denial of Service or remote code execution.
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 analysisThe program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.
General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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
FreeBSDOperating system
= 11.2= 12.0CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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.
dbcve · scopedFreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE-p7 or later / 12.0-RELEASE-p1 or later, or respective STABLE branches at or after r348229 (11.2) and r342228 (12.0)
- 1. Identify the current FreeBSD version using: uname -a
- 2. For FreeBSD 11.2.x systems: Upgrade to 11.2-RELEASE-p7 or later, or migrate to 11.2-STABLE(r348229) or later using freebsd-update or source build
- 3. For FreeBSD 12.0.x systems: Upgrade to 12.0-RELEASE-p1 or later, or migrate to 12.0-STABLE(r342228) or later using freebsd-update or source build
- 4. After upgrade, verify the bootpd service is running the patched version by checking the revision in the kernel or package
- 5. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, consider disabling bootpd if not required using service bootpd stop and removing the service
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-17161 — 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-2018-17161 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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