Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical
CVE-2018-8881
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 · uneditedNetwide Assembler (NASM) 2.13.02rc2 has a heap-based buffer over-read in the function tokenize in asm/preproc.c, related to an unterminated string.
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 confidenceNASM 2.13.02rc2 contains a heap-based buffer over-read vulnerability in the tokenize function within asm/preproc.c. The flaw occurs when processing unterminated strings, allowing an attacker to read beyond allocated heap memory boundaries. This could potentially expose sensitive memory contents or cause a denial of service through abnormal program termination.
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
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
= 14.04= 2.13.02CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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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Check if NASM is installedRun 'which nasm' on Linux/Unix systems, or check via package manager: 'dpkg -l | grep nasm' on Debian/Ubuntu, 'rpm -q nasm' on RHEL/CentOS, or 'brew list nasm' on macOSAffected if NASM is not found on the system (not vulnerable)
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Determine installed NASM versionExecute 'nasm --version' to display the version numberAffected if Version displayed is 2.13.02 (exact match to affected version per CVE)
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Verify OS distribution and versionFor Ubuntu systems, check with 'lsb_release -a' or check /etc/issue; for other Linux distributions, check /etc/os-releaseAffected if System runs Ubuntu 14.04 with NASM installed (affected platform per CVE)
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Confirm preprocessor feature is usedInspect assembly source files for preprocessor directives (%define, %include, %macro, or other %-prefixed directives) which invoke the asm/preproc.c tokenize function where the flaw existsAffected if Assembly files contain preprocessor directives that trigger the vulnerable tokenize function
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Determine if processing untrusted source filesReview whether NASM is used to assemble source files from untrusted or external sources that may contain unterminated string literalsAffected if Processing assembly files from untrusted sources that could contain malformed input
User is affected if NASM version 2.13.02 is installed AND the preprocessor is used to process assembly source files that may contain unterminated string literals, allowing heap memory to be read beyond allocated boundaries.
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 NASM to a version that includes the fix for this vulnerability. In the interim, avoid processing untrusted assembly source files with unterminated string literals.
Fix this in Ubuntu Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- 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-2018-8881 — 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-2018-8881 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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