CVE-2018-3868
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 · uneditedA specially crafted TIFF image processed via the application can lead to an out-of-bounds write, overwriting arbitrary data. An attacker can deliver a TIFF image to trigger this vulnerability and gain 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 analysis · moderate confidenceA vulnerability exists in the application's TIFF image parsing functionality where a specially crafted TIFF file with malformed headers or metadata causes an out-of-bounds memory write. This allows an attacker to overwrite adjacent memory regions and potentially achieve code execution by delivering a malicious TIFF image to be processed by the vulnerable application.
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= 20.53CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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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Verify Photoline installationCheck if Computer Insel Photoline is installed on the system. Common installation paths include Program Files\Computer Insel or Program Files (x86)\Computer Insel. Look for Photoline.exe in these directories.Affected if Computer Insel Photoline is installed on the system
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Confirm installed versionRight-click on the Photoline executable (Photoline.exe), select Properties, and check the File Version in the Details tab. Alternatively, run 'wmic product get name,version' or check the uninstall registry key at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for Photoline.Affected if The installed version is exactly 20.53
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Identify TIFF processing capabilityVerify that the TIFF image parsing functionality is available by attempting to open a TIFF file in Photoline or checking file associations for .tiff/.tif extensions associated with the application.Affected if TIFF files can be opened or processed by Photoline and the application processes these files with the vulnerable parsing code
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Check for suspicious TIFF filesReview any recently downloaded or received TIFF files in user download folders, email attachments, or network shares that may have been processed by Photoline. Look for files with abnormal sizes or unexpected metadata.Affected if Malformed TIFF files have been processed by Photoline, potentially indicating attempted exploitation
A user is affected if Computer Insel Photoline version 20.53 is installed and the application processes TIFF image files with its built-in parsing functionality.
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 dataFix the TIFF image parsing code to implement proper bounds checking and validate image dimensions/offsets before writing to memory. Additionally, consider implementing input validation to reject abnormally formatted TIFF files or using a validated third-party TIFF library with security fixes.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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 $3,328.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-3868 — 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-2018-3868 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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