What is CVE-2018-19217?

CVE-2018-19217 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GNU Ncurses, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2018-11-12.

How severe is CVE-2018-19217?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2018-19217 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-2018-19217

In ncurses, possibly a 6.x version, there is a NULL pointer dereference at the function _nc_name_match that will lead to a denial of service attack. NOTE: the original report stated version 6.1, but the issue did not reproduce for that version according to the maintainer or a reliable third-party

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

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.012 (65.8th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 66th percentile — 65.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.011 · newest: 0.012 · 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-2018-19217?: CVE-2018-19217 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GNU Ncurses, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2018-11-12.
How severe is CVE-2018-19217?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2018-19217 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.