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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2018-18385

πŸ—“οΈΒ 25 Aug 2025Β 00:00:00Reported byΒ TenableTypeΒ 
nessus
Β nessus
πŸ”—Β www.tenable.comπŸ‘Β 1Β Views

Unpatched vulnerability CVE-2018-18385: Asciidoctor <1.5.8 allows DoS via infinite loop.

Related
Refs
Code
ReporterTitlePublishedViews
Family
BDU FSTEC
The vulnerability of the AsciiDoc text processor, Asciidoctor, arises from executing a loop with an unavailable exit condition, allowing attackers to cause service failures.
19 Mar 202400:00
–bdu_fstec
CNVD
Asciidoctor Denial of Service Vulnerability
19 Oct 201800:00
–cnvd
CVE
CVE-2018-18385
16 Oct 201815:00
–cve
Cvelist
CVE-2018-18385
16 Oct 201815:00
–cvelist
Debian CVE
CVE-2018-18385
16 Oct 201815:00
–debiancve
EUVD
EUVD-2022-4946
3 Oct 202520:07
–euvd
Github Security Blog
Asciidoctor Infinite Loop vulnerability
13 May 202201:50
–github
NVD
CVE-2018-18385
16 Oct 201816:50
–nvd
OSV
DEBIAN-CVE-2018-18385
16 Oct 201816:50
–osv
OSV
GHSA-QC9P-MJXM-J2WJ Asciidoctor Infinite Loop vulnerability
13 May 202201:50
–osv
Rows per page
#%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80900
##
# (C) Tenable, Inc.
##

include('compat.inc');

if (description)
{
  script_id(254699);
  script_version("1.1");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2025/08/25");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2018-18385");

  script_name(english:"Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2018-18385");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be
patched.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied
patch available.

  - Asciidoctor in versions < 1.5.8 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop). The
    loop was caused by the fact that Parser.next_block was not exhausting all the lines in the reader as the
    while loop expected it would. This was happening because the regular expression that detects any list was
    not agreeing with the regular expression that detects a specific list type. So the line kept getting
    pushed back onto the reader, hence causing the loop. (CVE-2018-18385)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-18385");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"There is no known solution at this time.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"agent", value:"unix");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:POC/RL:OF/RC:C");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H");
  script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2018-18385");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"Exploits are available");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"true");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vendor_unpatched", value:"true");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2018/10/16");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2025/08/25");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:asciidoctor");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_family(english:"Misc.");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2025 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info2.nasl", "set_linux_os_id.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/cpu", "Host/local_checks_enabled", "global_settings/vendor_unpatched", "Host/OS/identifier");
  script_require_ports("Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-16.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-18.04");

  exit(0);
}

if (!get_kb_item("global_settings/vendor_unpatched")) exit(0, "Unpatched Vulnerabilities Detection not active.");
if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
if (empty_or_null(get_one_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l"))) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

include('linux_unpatched.inc');

var distro_constraints_array = {
  "Ubuntu Linux-16.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "16.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "asciidoctor"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-18.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "18.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "asciidoctor"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
};

var distro_constraints_values = linux_unpatched::get_distro_constraints(distro_constraints_arr:distro_constraints_array);
if (empty_or_null(distro_constraints_values)) audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
var report = linux_unpatched::check_unpatched_constraints(distro_constraints_values:distro_constraints_values);

if (!empty_or_null(report))
{
  security_report_v4(
      port       : 0,
      severity   : SECURITY_WARNING,
      extra      : report
  );
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
}

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