Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
The Sleuth Kit versions 4.0.2 through 4.6.1 have a memory-read flaw in UTF-16 to UTF-8 conversion. A crafted input could cause information disclosure or crash processing. This matters most where forensic tooling processes files, disk images, or filesystem data supplied by outside parties.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate operational risk for forensic and security teams. It is not supported as actively exploited in the sources, but affected tooling may handle hostile evidence or samples, making controlled parsing and version review important.
Technical view
CVE-2018-11740 is an out-of-bounds read in tsk_UTF16toUTF8 within tsk/base/tsk_unicode.c in libtskbase.a. The public description says it may disclose information or read unmapped memory, causing denial of service. No CVSS, CWE, patch details, or exploitation evidence are provided in the supplied sources.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in environments running The Sleuth Kit 4.0.2 through 4.6.1, or software linked against libtskbase.a, when parsing untrusted forensic or filesystem data.
Exploitation context
The supplied bundle does not show active exploitation and the CVE is not marked KEV. The described impact requires attacker-influenced input reaching the vulnerable Unicode conversion path during TSK processing.
Researcher notes
The source evidence is sparse: public CVE text and a GitHub issue reference. Key missing items include CVSS, CWE mapping, fixed release, reproducibility details, and exploit-in-the-wild evidence. Avoid assuming impact beyond information disclosure and denial of service.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory The Sleuth Kit deployments and embedded libtskbase.a usage.
- Check current Sleuth Kit vendor guidance for fixed versions or patches.
- Prioritize upgrade planning for versions 4.0.2 through 4.6.1.
- Process untrusted forensic inputs in isolated, least-privileged environments.
- Restrict who can submit files or images for TSK parsing.
Validation and detection
- Confirm installed The Sleuth Kit versions across analyst workstations and servers.
- Identify tools statically or dynamically linked against libtskbase.a.
- Review workflows that parse externally supplied disk images or filesystem artifacts.
- Check crash logs for TSK failures during Unicode or filesystem parsing.
- Verify vendor advisory status before closing remediation records.
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-2018-11740 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/1264CVE 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.