Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2018-5378
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 · uneditedThe Quagga BGP daemon (bgpd) prior to version 1.2.3 does not properly bounds check the data sent with a NOTIFY to a peer, if an attribute length is invalid. Arbitrary data from the bgpd process may be sent over the network to a peer and/or bgpd may crash.
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 confidenceThe Quagga BGP daemon (bgpd) contains a bounds check vulnerability in its NOTIFY message handling. When bgpd detects an invalid attribute length from a peer, it fails to properly bounds-check the data before sending a NOTIFY message back to the peer. This allows reading arbitrary memory from the bgpd process (information disclosure) and can cause bgpd to crash (Denial of Service).
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
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 8.0= 9.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
= 14.04= 16.04= 17.10<= 1.2.2CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/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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Check if Quagga bgpd is installedRun 'dpkg -l | grep quagga' on Debian/Ubuntu, or 'rpm -qa | grep quagga' on RHEL-based systems, or check for /usr/sbin/bgpd file existenceAffected if Quagga package or bgpd binary is present on the system
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Identify the installed bgpd versionRun 'bgpd -v' or 'quagga -v' or check the package version with 'dpkg -l quagga'/'rpm -q quagga'Affected if Version is 1.2.2 or lower, or unknown and the package is Quagga
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Verify if the BGP daemon is actively runningRun 'ps aux | grep bgpd' or check service status with 'systemctl status bgpd' or 'service bgpd status'Affected if bgpd process is running and accepting BGP peer connections
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Check for configured BGP peersInspect the bgpd configuration file (typically /etc/quagga/bgpd.conf or /etc/quagga/bgpd.conf) for 'neighbor' statements under router bgp configuration mode, or run 'vtysh -c "show running"' to view active configAffected if BGP peers are configured and bgpd is established sessions with remote peers
A system is affected if Quagga bgpd version 1.2.2 or lower is installed, the daemon is running, and it has active BGP peer connections that could send specially crafted messages with invalid attribute lengths.
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 dataUpgrade Quagga bgpd to version 1.2.3 or later to obtain the bounds-checking fix. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider filtering or rate-limiting BGP sessions or implementing BGP session monitoring for crash detection.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-5378 — 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-2018-5378 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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