How severe is CVE-2018-7186?

CVE-2018-7186 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8, rated critical severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.

Is CVE-2018-7186 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 3% (88th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2018-7186?

CVE-2018-7186 primarily affects Leptonica. In total, 2 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.

How do I fix CVE-2018-7186?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its critical severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.

When was CVE-2018-7186 published?

CVE-2018-7186 was published on 2018-02-16 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2018-7186

CVE-2018-7186 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Leptonica with a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-787.

Key facts

Severity: Critical (CVSS 3.x base score 9.8)
CVSS v2: 7.5
EPSS exploit prediction: 3% (88th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-787
Affected product: Leptonica
Published: 2018-02-16
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

Leptonica before 1.75.3 does not limit the number of characters in a %s format argument to fscanf or sscanf, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (stack-based buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a long string, as demonstrated by the gplotRead and ptaReadStream functions.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-7186?: Leptonica before 1.75.3 does not limit the number of characters in a %s format argument to fscanf or sscanf, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (stack-based buffer overflow) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a long string, as demonstrated by the gplotRead and ptaReadStream functions.
How severe is CVE-2018-7186?: CVE-2018-7186 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8, rated critical severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.
Is CVE-2018-7186 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 3% (88th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2018-7186?: CVE-2018-7186 primarily affects Leptonica. In total, 2 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.
How do I fix CVE-2018-7186?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its critical severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
When was CVE-2018-7186 published?: CVE-2018-7186 was published on 2018-02-16 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (2)

cpe:2.3:a:leptonica:leptonica:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More vulnerabilities in Leptonica

CVE-2018-7440 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): An issue was discovered in Leptonica through 1.75.3. The gplotMakeOutput function allows command injection via a…
CVE-2018-7247 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): An issue was discovered in pixHtmlViewer in prog/htmlviewer.c in Leptonica before 1.75.3. Unsanitized input (rootname)…
CVE-2018-7442 — Critical (CVSS 9.1): An issue was discovered in Leptonica through 1.75.3. The gplotMakeOutput function does not block '/' characters in the…
CVE-2018-3836 — High (CVSS 7.8): An exploitable command injection vulnerability exists in the gplotMakeOutput function of Leptonica 1.74.4. A specially…
CVE-2020-36281 — High (CVSS 7.5): Leptonica before 1.80.0 allows a heap-based buffer over-read in pixFewColorsOctcubeQuantMixed in colorquant1.c.
CVE-2020-36280 — High (CVSS 7.5): Leptonica before 1.80.0 allows a heap-based buffer over-read in pixReadFromTiffStream, related to tiffio.c.

All CVEs affecting Leptonica →

Other CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write) vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-42369 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): GV-VMS V20 is a Video Monitoring Software used to gather the feeds of many surveillance cameras and manage other…
CVE-2026-4746 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in timeplus-io proton (base/poco/Foundation/src‎ modules). This vulnerability is…
CVE-2025-43300 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved bounds checking. This issue is fixed in iOS 15.8.5 and iPadOS…
CVE-2025-24201 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved checks to prevent unauthorized actions. This issue is fixed in…
CVE-2024-42479 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): llama.cpp provides LLM inference in C/C++. The unsafe `data` pointer member in the `rpc_tensor` structure can cause…
CVE-2024-39791 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities affecting Vonets industrial wifi bridge relays and wifi bridge…

Browse all CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write) vulnerabilities →