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CVE Record

CVE-2018-18898: The email-ingestion feature in Best Practical Request Tracker 4.1.13 through 4.4 allows denial of service b...

The email-ingestion feature in Best Practical Request Tracker 4.1.13 through 4.4 allows denial of service by remote attackers via an algorithmic complexity attack on email address parsing.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2018-18898 is a denial-of-service issue in Request Tracker email ingestion. A remote sender may be able to craft email addressing that consumes excessive parsing resources, disrupting ticket intake rather than taking over systems.

Executive priority

Treat as a service availability issue for support or operations teams that depend on email-to-ticket workflows. Prioritize exposed RT mail-ingestion systems, but urgency is lower than remote code execution absent exploitation evidence.

Technical view

The CVE describes an algorithmic complexity attack in email address parsing for Best Practical Request Tracker 4.1.13 through 4.4. Distro references also point to libemail-address-list-perl security updates. No CVSS, CWE, or exploit evidence is provided in the source bundle.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely where Request Tracker 4.1.13 through 4.4 accepts inbound email for ticket creation or updates. Systems using affected distro packages named by Fedora, Debian, or Ubuntu advisories should also be reviewed.

Exploitation context

The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited active exploitation. The attack surface is remote email ingestion, and the described outcome is service degradation from expensive parsing, not data theft or code execution.

Researcher notes

Evidence is limited to the CVE description and vendor advisory references. The key research questions are exact fixed versions, package mapping, and whether the vulnerable parser is reachable through all configured RT mail ingestion paths.

Mitigation direction

  • Identify Request Tracker instances using email ingestion.
  • Check whether RT versions fall within 4.1.13 through 4.4.
  • Apply Best Practical or Linux distribution security updates where applicable.
  • Review Fedora, Debian, and Ubuntu advisories for package-specific fixes.
  • Consider mail filtering or rate controls for ticket-ingestion addresses.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory RT versions and inbound mail-processing paths.
  • Check installed libemail-address-list-perl package versions against vendor advisories.
  • Review ticket-mail queues for parsing delays or backlog spikes.
  • Confirm updated systems still ingest legitimate ticket emails.
  • Monitor mail ingestion CPU and processing latency after remediation.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
7

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

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

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CVE-2018-18898 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

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.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
6Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/an/an/aListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.