What is CVE-2018-20169?

CVE-2018-20169 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 6.8/10. Published 2018-12-17.

How severe is CVE-2018-20169?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2018-20169 known to be exploited?

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

Resource exhaustion in Linux Kernel

CVE-2018-20169

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 4.19.9. The USB subsystem mishandles size checks during the reading of an extra descriptor, related to __usb_get_extra_descriptor in drivers/usb/core/usb.c.

Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)

Published 2018-12-17 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.8 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.006 (45.5th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 46th percentile — 45.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.006 · change: -0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 14.04, 16.04
Debian Linux — versions 8.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-400 — Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Public proof-of-concept exploits

ARPSyndicate/cvemon

References

usn.ubuntu.com/3879-2/ (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/ (Patch, Mailing List, Vendor Advisory)
usn.ubuntu.com/3879-1/ (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.19.9 (Patch, Mailing List, Vendor Advisory)
github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/704620afc70cf47abb9d6a1a57f3825d2bca49cf (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/03/msg00034.html (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/04/msg00004.html (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/05/msg00002.html (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
usn.ubuntu.com/4094-1/ (vendor-advisory, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
usn.ubuntu.com/4118-1/ (vendor-advisory, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-20169?: CVE-2018-20169 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 6.8/10. Published 2018-12-17.
How severe is CVE-2018-20169?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2018-20169 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.