LiveActive security incident?Get immediate response
CVE Record

CVE-2018-20786: libvterm through 0+bzr726, as used in Vim and other products, mishandles certain out-of-memory conditions,...

libvterm through 0+bzr726, as used in Vim and other products, mishandles certain out-of-memory conditions, leading to a denial of service (application crash), related to screen.c, state.c, and vterm.c.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
Discuss exposureBack to CVEs
Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2018-20786 is an application crash issue in libvterm through 0+bzr726, a terminal emulation library used by Vim and other products. The public record describes denial of service from mishandled out-of-memory conditions, not data theft or remote code execution.

Executive priority

Treat this as a targeted reliability and availability risk, not a confirmed breach vector. Remediate through normal patch management, with higher priority for shared developer environments, jump hosts, and production administration systems.

Technical view

The issue concerns incorrect handling of certain allocation failures in libvterm code paths related to screen.c, state.c, and vterm.c. The stated result is denial of service through application crash. The provided sources do not include CVSS, CWE, affected package versions beyond libvterm through 0+bzr726, or detailed trigger conditions.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely where Vim or another product includes vulnerable libvterm code through 0+bzr726. Asset owners should verify bundled or system libvterm versions rather than assuming only standalone libvterm packages are affected.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. Public references include a Vim issue, a Vim commit, and an Ubuntu security notice, but no exploit status or weaponized details are provided here.

Researcher notes

The evidence is sparse: the CVE record gives impact and affected upstream scope, while references point to Vim remediation discussion and Ubuntu guidance. Avoid expanding affected products beyond libvterm, Vim usage, and unspecified other consumers without product-specific confirmation.

Mitigation direction

  • Identify Vim and other applications that bundle or link libvterm.
  • Check vendor advisories for fixed package availability and supported upgrade paths.
  • Prioritize updates on multi-user systems and systems processing untrusted terminal content.
  • Use vendor-fixed builds rather than applying unverified local patches.
  • If updates are unavailable, limit use of affected terminal-emulation functionality where practical.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory installed Vim, libvterm, and downstream packages using vendor package metadata.
  • Compare discovered versions against vendor advisories and upstream libvterm through 0+bzr726 scope.
  • Confirm whether packages include the referenced upstream Vim remediation commit.
  • Review crash reports for Vim or libvterm out-of-memory failures.
  • Document systems where no vendor-fixed package is yet available.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
5

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

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2018-20786 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

Open ATT&CK lookup
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
4Source 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.