Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This CVE affects The Sleuth Kit versions 4.0.2 through 4.6.1. A crafted NTFS filesystem input could make the library read memory outside the intended buffer, potentially exposing information or crashing the process. The public bundle does not provide a CVSS score or named fixed release.
Executive priority
Treat this as a targeted operational risk for forensic and analysis pipelines, not a broad internet-facing emergency based on current evidence. Prioritize teams that process external disk images.
Technical view
The issue is an out-of-bounds read in libtskfs.a, specifically ntfs_make_data_run in tsk/fs/ntfs.c. The source states it can be leveraged for information disclosure or denial of service by reading unmapped memory. Evidence is limited to the CVE description and linked GitHub issue.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where The Sleuth Kit 4.0.2 through 4.6.1 processes NTFS images or media from untrusted or semi-trusted sources, including forensic, incident response, and automated analysis workflows.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited active exploitation. The practical risk depends on whether attackers can supply filesystem images or storage media that TSK-based tooling parses.
Researcher notes
The bundle lacks CVSS, CWE, patch metadata, and exploit evidence. Analysis should remain bounded to an out-of-bounds read in ntfs_make_data_run affecting TSK 4.0.2 through 4.6.1, with information disclosure and denial-of-service impact stated by CVE sources.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory The Sleuth Kit deployments and embedded library versions.
- Prioritize systems processing untrusted NTFS images or media.
- Check Sleuth Kit vendor guidance for fixed releases or recommended remediation.
- Isolate forensic parsing jobs from sensitive systems and data.
- Avoid processing untrusted NTFS inputs with affected versions where feasible.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether deployed TSK versions are 4.0.2 through 4.6.1.
- Map workflows that parse NTFS filesystem images or media.
- Review crash or failure logs from TSK-based NTFS parsing.
- Verify remediation against vendor guidance before returning workflows to normal.
- Document compensating controls for systems awaiting update.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2018-11738 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/sleuthkit/sleuthkit/issues/1265CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.