CVE-2018-1802
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 · uneditedIBM DB2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows (includes DB2 Connect Server) 9.7, 10.1, 10.5, and 11.1 binaries load shared libraries from an untrusted path potentially giving low privilege user full access to the DB2 instance account by loading a malicious shared library. IBM X-Force ID: 149640.
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 confidenceIBM DB2 binaries load shared libraries from an untrusted path, allowing a low-privilege local attacker to place a malicious shared library that gets loaded with the DB2 instance account privileges, achieving privilege escalation to full control of the DB2 instance.
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= 9.7= 10.1= 10.5= 11.1CVSS 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
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 DB2 versionRun 'db2level' or 'db2pd -version' from a DB2 instance owner account, or check /opt/ibm/db2/version_db2instancename/sqllib directoryAffected if The version matches 9.7, 10.1, 10.5, or 11.1 exactly
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Check DB2 library search path configurationReview the LIBPATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, or DB2LIB environment variables set for the DB2 instance owner, and examine db2diag.log for library loading messagesAffected if The path includes world-writable directories or directories accessible to non-DB2 users
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Verify permissions on directories in DB2 library pathUse 'ls -la' on each directory listed in the DB2 library search path and check for write permissions granted to unauthorized users or groupsAffected if Any directory in the search path is writable by non-privileged users (mode 777 or group-writable with inappropriate group members)
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Inspect DB2 binary execution environmentRun 'ps -ef | grep db2' to identify running DB2 processes and check their effective UID/GID, then review the PATH variable used by those processesAffected if DB2 processes run with DB2 instance owner privileges and the PATH contains directories controlled by low-privilege users
A user is affected if they run any of the specific versions 9.7, 10.1, 10.5, or 11.1 AND have writable directories in the library search path accessible to untrusted users.
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 IBM DB2 security patch for CVE-2018-1802 and ensure library directories have restrictive permissions to prevent unauthorized file placement.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,096.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-1802 — 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-2018-1802 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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