CURL-CVE-2018-16842

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Source
https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2018-16842.html
Import Source
https://curl.se/docs/CURL-CVE-2018-16842.json
JSON Data
https://api.test.osv.dev/v1/vulns/CURL-CVE-2018-16842
Aliases
Published
2018-10-31T08:00:00Z
Modified
2026-05-29T05:40:19.369639Z
Summary
warning message out-of-buffer read
Details

curl contains a heap out of buffer read vulnerability.

The command line tool has a generic function for displaying warning and informational messages to stderr for various situations. For example if an unknown command line argument is used, or passed to it in a "config" file.

This display function formats the output to wrap at 80 columns. The wrap logic is however flawed, so if a single word in the message is itself longer than 80 bytes the buffer arithmetic calculates the remainder wrong and ends up reading behind the end of the buffer. This could lead to information disclosure or crash.

This vulnerability could lead to a security issue if used in this or similar situations:

  1. a server somewhere uses the curl command line to run something
  2. if it fails, it shows stderr to the user
  3. the server takes user input for parts of its command line input
  4. user provides something overly long that triggers this crash
  5. the stderr output may now contain user memory contents that was not meant to be available
Database specific 
{
    "severity": "Low",
    "award": {
        "amount": "100",
        "currency": "USD"
    },
    "affects": "tool",
    "CWE": {
        "id": "CWE-125",
        "desc": "Out-of-bounds Read"
    },
    "URL": "https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2018-16842.json",
    "last_affected": "7.61.1",
    "www": "https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2018-16842.html",
    "package": "curl"
}
References
Credits
    • Brian Carpenter (Geeknik Labs) - FINDER
    • Daniel Stenberg - REMEDIATION_DEVELOPER

Affected packages

Git / github.com/curl/curl.git

Affected ranges

Type
SEMVER
Events
Introduced
7.14.1
Fixed
7.62.0
Type
GIT
Repo
https://github.com/curl/curl.git
Events
Introduced
d9ca9154d111e1287cc7ef06ec543094a4433f1f
Fixed
d530e92f59ae9bb2d47066c3c460b25d2ffeb211

Affected versions

7.*
7.14.1
7.15.0
7.15.1
7.15.2
7.15.3
7.15.4
7.15.5
7.16.0
7.16.1
7.16.2
7.16.3
7.16.4
7.17.0
7.17.1
7.18.0
7.18.1
7.18.2
7.19.0
7.19.1
7.19.2
7.19.3
7.19.4
7.19.5
7.19.6
7.19.7
7.20.0
7.20.1
7.21.0
7.21.1
7.21.2
7.21.3
7.21.4
7.21.5
7.21.6
7.21.7
7.22.0
7.23.0
7.23.1
7.24.0
7.25.0
7.26.0
7.27.0
7.28.0
7.28.1
7.29.0
7.30.0
7.31.0
7.32.0
7.33.0
7.34.0
7.35.0
7.36.0
7.37.0
7.37.1
7.38.0
7.39.0
7.40.0
7.41.0
7.42.0
7.42.1
7.43.0
7.44.0
7.45.0
7.46.0
7.47.0
7.47.1
7.48.0
7.49.0
7.49.1
7.50.0
7.50.1
7.50.2
7.50.3
7.51.0
7.52.0
7.52.1
7.53.0
7.53.1
7.54.0
7.54.1
7.55.0
7.55.1
7.56.0
7.56.1
7.57.0
7.58.0
7.59.0
7.60.0
7.61.0
7.61.1
Other
curl-7_14_1
curl-7_15_0
curl-7_15_1
curl-7_15_2
curl-7_15_3
curl-7_15_4
curl-7_15_5
curl-7_15_6-prepipeline
curl-7_16_0
curl-7_16_1
curl-7_16_2
curl-7_16_3
curl-7_16_4
curl-7_17_0
curl-7_17_0-preldapfix
curl-7_17_1
curl-7_18_0
curl-7_18_1
curl-7_18_2
curl-7_19_0
curl-7_19_1
curl-7_19_2
curl-7_19_3
curl-7_19_4
curl-7_19_5
curl-7_19_6
curl-7_19_7
curl-7_20_0
curl-7_20_1
curl-7_21_0
curl-7_21_1
curl-7_21_2
curl-7_21_3
curl-7_21_4
curl-7_21_5
curl-7_21_6
curl-7_21_7
curl-7_22_0
curl-7_23_0
curl-7_23_1
curl-7_24_0
curl-7_25_0
curl-7_26_0
curl-7_27_0
curl-7_28_0
curl-7_28_1
curl-7_29_0
curl-7_30_0
curl-7_31_0
curl-7_32_0
curl-7_33_0
curl-7_34_0
curl-7_35_0
curl-7_36_0
curl-7_37_0
curl-7_37_1
curl-7_38_0
curl-7_39_0
curl-7_40_0
curl-7_41_0
curl-7_42_0
curl-7_42_1
curl-7_43_0
curl-7_44_0
curl-7_45_0
curl-7_46_0
curl-7_47_0
curl-7_47_1
curl-7_48_0
curl-7_49_0
curl-7_49_1
curl-7_50_0
curl-7_50_1
curl-7_50_2
curl-7_50_3
curl-7_51_0
curl-7_52_0
curl-7_52_1
curl-7_53_0
curl-7_53_1
curl-7_54_0
curl-7_54_1
curl-7_55_0
curl-7_55_1
curl-7_56_0
curl-7_56_1
curl-7_57_0
curl-7_58_0
curl-7_59_0
curl-7_60_0
curl-7_61_0
curl-7_61_1

Database specific

vanir_signatures_modified 
"2026-05-29T05:40:19Z"
vanir_signatures 
[
    {
        "digest": {
            "function_hash": "276247327338978490978930240644272334443",
            "length": 701.0
        },
        "signature_version": "v1",
        "id": "CURL-CVE-2018-16842-215c36da",
        "signature_type": "Function",
        "deprecated": false,
        "target": {
            "file": "src/tool_msgs.c",
            "function": "voutf"
        },
        "source": "https://github.com/curl/curl.git/commit/d530e92f59ae9bb2d47066c3c460b25d2ffeb211"
    },
    {
        "digest": {
            "line_hashes": [
                "168815568103819800894446565004067456537",
                "228111618259869147888575535538857014400",
                "339861644007337486665567803047408870040",
                "172320610373815332630135197132714421772"
            ],
            "threshold": 0.9
        },
        "signature_version": "v1",
        "id": "CURL-CVE-2018-16842-72cd0696",
        "signature_type": "Line",
        "deprecated": false,
        "target": {
            "file": "src/tool_msgs.c"
        },
        "source": "https://github.com/curl/curl.git/commit/d530e92f59ae9bb2d47066c3c460b25d2ffeb211"
    }
]
source 
"https://curl.se/docs/CURL-CVE-2018-16842.json"