What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2018-12020

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 8.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2018-06-08 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-706

Description

mainproc.c in GnuPG before 2.2.8 mishandles the original filename during decryption and verification actions, which allows remote attackers to spoof the output that GnuPG sends on file descriptor 2 to other programs that use the "--status-fd 2" option. For example, the OpenPGP data might represent an original filename that contains line feed characters in conjunction with GOODSIG or VALIDSIG status codes.

Affected products

• Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 12.04, 14.04, 16.04, 17.10, 18.04, 18.10 (+1)
• Debian Linux: 8.0, 9.0
• GnuPG: before 2.2.8 — fixed in 2.2.8
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Desktop: 6.0, 7.0
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Server: 6.0, 7.0
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Server Aus: 7.6
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Server Eus: 7.5, 7.6
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Server Tus: 7.6
• RedHat Enterprise Linux Workstation: 6.0, 7.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: GnuPG 2.2.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/06/08/2
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152703/Johnny-You-Are-Fired.html
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Apr/38
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/04/30/4
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/104450
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1041051
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2180
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2181
• https://dev.gnupg.org/T4012
• https://github.com/RUB-NDS/Johnny-You-Are-Fired
• https://github.com/RUB-NDS/Johnny-You-Are-Fired/blob/master/paper/johnny-fired.pdf
• https://help.ecostruxureit.com/display/public/UADCE725/Security+fixes+in+StruxureWare+Data+Center+Expert+v7.6.0

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