CVE-2018-20450 — The read_MSAT function in ole

The read_MSAT function in ole.c in libxls 1.4.0 has a double free that allows attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted file, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-2897.

01What is this vulnerability?

The read_MSAT function in ole.c in libxls 1.4.0 has a double free that allows attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted file, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-2897.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

08Timeline

• Published: 2018-12-25T17:00:00.000Z
• Last modified: 2024-08-05T11:58:19.160Z

09References

• github.com — https://github.com/evanmiller/libxls/issues/34
• security.gentoo.org — https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-64