CVE-2018-25427
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 · uneditedArm Whois 3.11 contains a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by supplying oversized input to the IP address or domain field. Attackers can craft malicious input exceeding 658 bytes with shellcode to overwrite the structured exception handler and gain command execution when the application processes the input.
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 confidenceArm Whois 3.11 contains a stack-based buffer overflow in the IP address or domain input field. Attackers can inject shellcode by sending input exceeding 658 bytes, which overwrites the structured exception handler (SEH) to achieve arbitrary code execution. This is a classic stack overflow with SEH-based exploitation.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS 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:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 Arm Whois installation and versionCheck installed software list or locate Arm Whois executable (commonly whois.exe or armwhois.exe) and verify its version propertyAffected if Version is 3.11 or falls within the version range containing this vulnerability
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Determine if service is network-facingCheck if the Whois service is listening on any network port or exposed to remote connections (common ports 43, 80, 443, or custom ports)Affected if Service is accessible from network or untrusted hosts
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Review input handling configurationInspect any available configuration for Arm Whois to see if input length limits or input validation controls are definedAffected if No input length validation exists or limits exceed 658 bytes for domain/IP fields
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Check for exploitation artifactsExamine system logs, crash dumps, or suspicious files in the Whois service directory for evidence of buffer overflow attempts or code injectionAffected if Any crash logs or unexpected files indicating overflow exploitation are found
If Arm Whois version 3.11 is installed and the service is network-accessible without input length restrictions under 658 bytes, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.
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 to a patched version of Arm Whois if available; otherwise implement strict input length validation and bounds checking on all user-supplied input fields, or disable the affected service until a patch is released.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-25427 — 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-2018-25427 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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