What is CVE-2018-19211?

CVE-2018-19211 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GNU Ncurses, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2018-11-12.

How severe is CVE-2018-19211?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2018-19211 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

NULL pointer dereference in GNU Ncurses

CVE-2018-19211

In ncurses 6.1, there is a NULL pointer dereference at function _nc_parse_entry in parse_entry.c that will lead to a denial of service attack. The product proceeds to the dereference code path even after a "dubious character `*' in name or alias field" detection.

Published 2018-11-12 · last modified 2026-07-23.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.009 (57.0th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 57th percentile — 57.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.009 · newest: 0.009 · change: +0.000

Affected products

GNU Ncurses — versions 6.1
Invisible-Island Ncurses — versions 6.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-476 — NULL Pointer Dereference

Public proof-of-concept exploits

ARPSyndicate/cvemon

References

bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-19211?: CVE-2018-19211 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GNU Ncurses, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2018-11-12.
How severe is CVE-2018-19211?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2018-19211 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.