CVE-2018-6319
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 Sophos Tester Tool 3.2.0.7 Beta, the driver accepts a special DeviceIoControl code that doesn't check its argument. This argument is a memory address: if a caller passes a NULL pointer or a random invalid address, the driver will cause a Blue Screen of Death. If a program or malware does this at boot time, it can cause a persistent denial of service on the machine.
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 Sophos Tester Tool 3.2.0.7 Beta kernel driver fails to validate a memory address pointer passed via a specific DeviceIoControl code. When an attacker passes a NULL pointer or invalid memory address, the driver triggers a kernel-mode crash resulting in a Blue Screen of Death. If exploited during boot, this causes persistent 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= 3.2.0.7CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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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Verify Sophos Tester Tool installationCheck installed programs for 'Sophos Tester' or 'Sophos Tester Tool' version 3.2.0.7 Beta. On Windows, inspect Add/Remove Programs or query the registry under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for entries matching Sophos Tester.Affected if Sophos Tester Tool version 3.2.0.7 Beta is installed on the system.
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Locate the vulnerable kernel driverSearch for the Sophos kernel driver file on the system. Typical driver naming patterns for this tool include files with 'sophos' and 'tester' in the name with .sys extension, commonly found in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ or the application's installation directory.Affected if A Sophos Tester driver (.sys file) exists on the system.
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Confirm driver loaded statusCheck if the driver is currently loaded in memory by running 'sc query' or 'driverquery /v' at command prompt and looking for the Sophos Tester driver service, or use Process Explorer/driverVerifier to enumerate loaded kernel drivers.Affected if The Sophos Tester kernel driver is currently loaded in memory.
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Identify DeviceIoControl interface exposureExamine the driver's device object and associated DeviceIoControl codes using tools like WinObj or by analyzing driver communications. The vulnerability triggers via a specific DeviceIoControl code that fails to validate memory address pointers.Affected if The driver exposes a DeviceIoControl interface accessible from user-mode applications.
A system is affected if Sophos Tester Tool 3.2.0.7 Beta is installed and the vulnerable kernel driver is present or loaded, as the flaw allows kernel-mode crashes via improper pointer validation in DeviceIoControl requests.
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 dataUninstall the Sophos Tester Tool 3.2.0.7 Beta or remove/disable the vulnerable driver to prevent BSOD triggers. Since this is a beta tool with no indicated patch, the recommended approach is complete removal until a patched version is available.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-6319 — 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-2018-6319 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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