In 2018, 174 Linux kernel CVEs were published, sourced from the NIST National Vulnerability Database. Of these, 4 were rated Critical, 53 High severity , and 1 was confirmed as actively exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) . Compared to 2017's 215 CVEs, 2018 represented a decrease of 19% year-on-year. July was the most active month, with 41 CVEs published.
Monthly CVE Breakdown — 2018
CVEs published per month with severity breakdown
July (41) was the most active month in 2018. Together the top months account for a significant share of 2018's 174 total CVEs. November (5) had the lowest volume.
Severity Distribution — 2018
Breakdown across 174 CVEs
66% Medium · 30% High · 2% Critical.
Monthly Counts — 2018
CVE counts by month and severity
July was the most active month with 41 CVEs — 24% of 2018's total. November (5) had the lowest volume.
| Month | Total | Critical | High | Medium | Low | Share of year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 18 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 0 |
10%
|
| February | 14 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 0 |
8%
|
| March | 22 | 0 | 6 | 16 | 0 |
13%
|
| April | 13 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0 |
7%
|
| May | 12 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
7%
|
| June | 12 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 0 |
7%
|
| July | 41 | 0 | 11 | 29 | 1 |
24%
|
| August | 10 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
6%
|
| September | 11 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
6%
|
| October | 10 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
6%
|
| November | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
3%
|
| December | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
3%
|
| Total | 174 | 4 | 53 | 115 | 2 |
Actively exploited CVEs — 2018
1 CVE confirmed in CISA KEV catalog
All CVEs — 2018
174 CVEs
| CVE ID | Package | Severity | CVSS | Published | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2018-12714 | linux | Critical | 9.8 | 2018-06-24 | An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel through 4.17.2. The filter parsing in kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c co… | |
| CVE-2017-18174 | linux | Critical | 9.8 | 2018-02-11 | In the Linux kernel before 4.7, the amd_gpio_remove function in drivers/pinctrl/pinctrl-amd.c calls the pinctrl_unregis… | |
| CVE-2018-5703 | linux | Critical | 9.8 | 2018-01-16 | The tcp_v6_syn_recv_sock function in net/ipv6/tcp_ipv6.c in the Linux kernel through 4.14.11 allows attackers to cause … | |
| CVE-2017-18017 | linux | Critical | 9.8 | 2018-01-03 | The tcpmss_mangle_packet function in net/netfilter/xt_TCPMSS.c in the Linux kernel before 4.11, and 4.9.x before 4.9.36… | |
| CVE-2018-18559 | linux | High | 8.1 | 2018-10-22 | In the Linux kernel through 4.19, a use-after-free can occur due to a race condition between fanout_add from setsockopt… | |
| CVE-2017-15126 | linux | High | 8.1 | 2018-01-14 | A use-after-free flaw was found in fs/userfaultfd.c in the Linux kernel before 4.13.6. The issue is related to the hand… | |
| CVE-2018-16884 | linux | High | 8.0 | 2018-12-18 | A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's NFS41+ subsystem. NFS41+ shares mounted in different network namespaces at the s… | |
| CVE-2018-19824 | linux | High | 7.8 | 2018-12-03 | In the Linux kernel through 4.19.6, a local user could exploit a use-after-free in the ALSA driver by supplying a malic… | |
| CVE-2018-18281 | linux | High | 7.8 | 2018-10-30 | Since Linux kernel version 3.2, the mremap() syscall performs TLB flushes after dropping pagetable locks. If a syscall … | |
| CVE-2018-18445 | linux | High | 7.8 | 2018-10-17 | In the Linux kernel 4.14.x, 4.15.x, 4.16.x, 4.17.x, and 4.18.x before 4.18.13, faulty computation of numeric bounds in … |
2018 Linux Kernel CVE Highlights
-
Volume without critical severity
Despite high CVE volume, 2018 produced only 4 Critical-rated vulnerabilities. 66% of 2018 CVEs are Medium severity. This means the surge in raw numbers does not represent a proportional surge in high-severity risk.
-
Monthly variation
CVE publication in 2018 was uneven across months. July was the most active with 41 CVEs. November (5) had the lowest volume. Monthly spikes typically correspond to coordinated batches of backfilled CVEs being processed at once.