CVE-2018-20014
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 UrBackup 2.2.6, an attacker can send a malformed request to the client over the network, and trigger a fileservplugin/CClientThread.cpp CClientThread::GetFileHashAndMetadata NULL pointer dereference, leading to shutting down the client application.
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 confidenceA NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists in UrBackup client 2.2.6 within the GetFileHashAndMetadata function in fileservplugin/CClientThread.cpp. An attacker can trigger this by sending a malformed network request to the client, causing the application to crash and shut down (Denial of Service). The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation before dereferencing a pointer.
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= 2.2.6CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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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Confirm UrBackup client is installedRun 'urbackupclientctl --version' or check installed packages for 'urbackup' or 'urbackup-client'. On Windows, check Program Files for UrBackup Client folder.Affected if UrBackup client software is not found on the system
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Identify the installed versionExecute 'urbackupclientctl --version' or check the client version through the service status. On Windows, right-click the client tray icon and select 'About'.Affected if The installed version is exactly 2.2.6
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Verify the client service is runningCheck if the UrBackup client service is active. On Linux: 'systemctl status urbackup-client' or 'service urbackup-client status'. On Windows: check Services.msc for 'UrBackup Client' with status 'Running'.Affected if The client service is running and listening for network connections
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Confirm network exposure of the clientCheck listening ports on the system. Run 'netstat -an | grep 35623' (default UrBackup client port) or 'ss -tlnp | grep 35623'. Verify if the port is bound to 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) rather than localhost only.Affected if The client port 35623 is open to network access (0.0.0.0) rather than localhost only
You are affected only if the UrBackup client version 2.2.6 is installed AND the client service is running and accessible over the network, allowing an external attacker to send malformed requests that trigger the NULL pointer dereference.
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 dataUpdate UrBackup to a patched version that addresses this NULL pointer dereference. As a compensating control, restrict network access to trusted clients only to reduce the attack surface for this client-side vulnerability.
- 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-2018-20014 — 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-2018-20014 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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