CVE-2018-18508
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 Network Security Services (NSS) before 3.36.7 and before 3.41.1, a malformed signature can cause a crash due to a null dereference, resulting in a Denial of Service.
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 confidenceIn Network Security Services (NSS) before 3.36.7 and before 3.41.1, a malformed signature causes a null pointer dereference crash, resulting in denial of service. The vulnerability is triggered during signature validation when the code fails to properly handle malformed input.
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< 3.36.7>= 3.41, < 3.41.1< 2.14.0< 2.14.0< 2.14.0< 2.14.0< 2.14.0< 2.14.0< 2.14.0CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 NSS library version on Linux systemsRun 'rpm -qa | grep nss' or 'dpkg -l | grep libnss3' to list installed NSS packages, then use 'rpm -q --qf "%{VERSION}\n" nss' or 'dpkg -s libnss3' to get the exact version numberAffected if The installed NSS version is less than 3.36.7, or greater than or equal to 3.41 but less than 3.41.1
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Identify NSS library version on Windows systemsCheck the file properties of nss3.dll in the NSS installation directory, or run 'reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\NSS" /v Version' if NSS was installed with registry entriesAffected if The NSS DLL version is less than 3.36.7, or greater than or equal to 3.41 but less than 3.41.1
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Identify Siemens Ruggedcom ROX firmware versionAccess the device web interface or CLI and run 'show version' or check the firmware version through the management consoleAffected if The firmware version is below 2.14.0
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Determine if signature validation using NSS is actively in useReview application logs for SSL/TLS certificate validation operations, or examine running processes that link against libnss3.so or nss3.dllAffected if Any application performs signature verification or certificate validation using the vulnerable NSS library version
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Check for recent crash logs indicating null pointer dereferenceReview system crash logs, application error logs, or core dumps around the time of signature verification operations for evidence of null dereference faultsAffected if Crashes are occurring during certificate or signature validation operations with the vulnerable NSS version present
You are affected if your system runs any version of Mozilla NSS below 3.36.7 or between 3.41 and 3.41.1, or if Siemens Ruggedcom ROX devices run firmware below version 2.14.0, and signature validation using the library is performed.
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 data2.14.03.36.73.41.1
Update NSS to version 3.36.7, 3.41.1, or later to patch the null dereference vulnerability. Identify all deployments using vulnerable NSS versions and apply the update accordingly.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-18508 — 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-2018-18508 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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