Evidence used
- No CISA KEV confirmation is currently recorded.
- A structured source references public exploit or proof-of-concept material.
- EPSS is 0.12% for the current model date.
BlackTreeCVE IntelligenceFull vulnerability report · 2026
CVE-2018-25282High confidence
Nmap 7.70 Denial of Service via XML Entity Expansion
ZenMap · ZenMap
6.9MediumCVSS 4.0
Within 7 days
Fix not verifiedMedium technical severity with public exploit material referenced by a structured source; prioritise exposed affected systems while verifying vendor guidance.
R
Open reassessment dashboard →Operational reassessment
Published severity in operational context
Published severityMedium→Operational priority:Medium, unchanged from published severity.unchanged
Compensating controls
- Restrict local access and enforce least privilege on affected hosts.
- Increase monitoring for the attack path and post-exploitation behaviour described in the report.
Verification
- Confirm that the asset runs ZenMap ZenMap and falls inside the recorded affected range.
- Recheck the vendor advisory before scheduling a change because no verified fixed version is currently retained.
- Validate exposure, authentication requirements and compensating controls in the actual environment.
- Reopen this reassessment when CVSS, KEV, EPSS, exploit evidence or remediation changes.
Direct vendor intelligence
0 current · 1 archivedAuthoritative vendor CSAF and VEX advisories
Structured product status and remediation from the issuing vendor. Product-state explanations are always visible; large lists can be searched or downloaded.
CVE-2018-25282 · CSAF 2.0 · revision 3 · finalRed Hat Product Securitynmap: zenmap: Nmap/ZenMap: Denial of Service via XML entity expansionNo longer in the provider’s current catalogue
The vendor explicitly identifies these products as affected by this CVE.
- nmap-ncat as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- nmap.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8 as a component of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Summary
- A flaw was found in Nmap and ZenMap. A local attacker could exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious XML file with nested entity definitions. When this file is opened through ZenMap's scan import functionality, it causes the program to consume excessive system resources, leading to a denial of service (DoS) by crashing the application.
- Remediation
- Fix deferred
Medium technical severity with public exploit material referenced by a structured source; prioritise exposed affected systems while verifying vendor guidance.
Fix not verified01
What, why and how
Nmap 7.70 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows local attackers to crash the application by processing malicious XML files with exponential entity expansion. Attackers can create a crafted XML file with nested entity definitions and open it through ZenMap's scan import functionality to cause the program to consume excessive system resources and crash.
What
Nmap 7.70 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows local attackers to crash the application by processing malicious XML files with exponential entity expansion. Attackers can create a crafted XML file with nested entity definitions and open it through ZenMap's scan import functionality to cause the program to consume excessive system resources and crash.
Why
The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
How
An attacker operating through local access may attempt exploitation without authentication or user interaction. If successful, the issue may disrupt the affected service.
What
Nmap 7.70 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows local attackers to crash the application by processing malicious XML files with exponential entity expansion. Attackers can create a crafted XML file with nested entity definitions and open it through ZenMap's scan import functionality to cause the program to consume excessive system resources and crash.
Why
The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
How
An attacker operating through local access may attempt exploitation without authentication or user interaction. If successful, the issue may disrupt the affected service.
02
Exploit reality and attack path
CVSS severity, EPSS forecast probability, public exploit material and CISA-confirmed exploitation are separate signals.
Observed exploitation No confirmed evidence
?
Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.No CISA KEV match was present at the last successful refresh. This means no confirmation from that source, not proof of no exploitation.
Public PoC / exploit material Reference recorded
?
Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.CISA Vulnrichment records proof-of-concept exploitation in its SSVC data. BlackTree has not independently executed or validated exploit material.
- Likely attack path
- local access → Uncontrolled Recursion → disrupt the affected service
- Attack surface
- Local
- Privileges required
- None: unauthenticated exploitation is possible
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low: no specialised conditions are recorded
- Security boundary
- Not a CVSS 4.0 base metric
- Weakness
?
CWE means Common Weakness Enumeration: a standard category for the underlying weakness. - CWE-674 ↗
CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion. The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
- CVSS vector
?
CVSS means Common Vulnerability Scoring System. The vector records the metric values used to calculate technical severity. CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NCommon Vulnerability Scoring System 4.0: the compact vector below is decoded into plain language.
AVLocalAttack vector: The attacker needs local access to the vulnerable system.ACLowAttack complexity: No specialised conditions are required beyond attacker-controlled input.ATNoneAttack requirements: No additional deployment or execution condition is required.PRNonePrivileges required: The attacker does not need an account or existing privileges.UINoneUser interaction: No action by another user is required.VCNoneVulnerable-system confidentiality: No direct loss is represented by this metric.VINoneVulnerable-system integrity: No direct loss is represented by this metric.VAHighVulnerable-system availability: A successful attack can cause a major loss.SCNoneSubsequent-system confidentiality: No direct loss is represented by this metric.SINoneSubsequent-system integrity: No direct loss is represented by this metric.SANoneSubsequent-system availability: No direct loss is represented by this metric.- Post-exploitation / living off the land
- The issue can support a local privilege or sandbox boundary transition; normal system utilities may then be available in the gained context.
03
Patch and workaround
Operational remediation based on structured source evidence.
- Status
?
Patch availability is based on structured fixed-version fields and authoritative update references. If no fix is verified, check the vendor advisory before making a change. - Fix not verified
- Affected
- ZenMap: 7.70
- Fixed
- No fixed version is explicitly recorded in the structured CVE data.
- Action
- No verified patch reference is present in the current structured sources. Check the vendor advisory before making a change.
- Workaround
- No verified workaround is recorded. Limit untrusted access and use least privilege until authoritative guidance is available.
04
Evidence and provenance
Published 26 Apr 2026 · Last source change 27 Apr 2026, 14:04 UTC · CWE-674 · Uncontrolled Recursion
CVE recordCVE.org · 5.2
CVSS sourceCNA
EPSS source FIRST · tracked since 2026-08-14
?
The date BlackTree first stored a score for this CVE from the daily FIRST EPSS feed.European sourceENISA EUVD · EUVD-2018-21802
Product sourceCNA
Remediation sourceCVE/CNA references
CWE sourceCNA
NVD statusNVD not scheduled
Core structured fields are present and their contributing authorities are shown above.
Material change intelligence
View recent updates ↗What changed after publication
- Vendor guidanceAuthoritative vendor guidance changed from remediation: access.redhat.com/CVE-2018-25282 to advisory no longer present in the provider's current catalogue.Red Hat Product Security ↗
- Before
- remediation: access.redhat.com/CVE-2018-25282
- After
- advisory no longer present in the provider's current catalogue
Technical terms and abbreviations used in this report
- CVE
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures: the public identifier for one disclosed vulnerability.
- CVSS
- Common Vulnerability Scoring System: a technical severity framework; it is not patching priority by itself.
- EPSS
- Exploit Prediction Scoring System: FIRST's estimate of the probability that exploitation activity will be observed in the next 30 days; it is a forecast, not confirmation.
- CWE
- Common Weakness Enumeration: the standard category describing the underlying software or hardware weakness.
- CNA
- CVE Numbering Authority: an organisation authorised to assign and publish CVE records.
- CISA ADP
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Authorized Data Publisher: structured enrichment added to a CVE record.
- NVD
- National Vulnerability Database: NIST's enrichment service for CVE records.
- CERT / CSIRT
- A computer security incident response team that publishes warnings or coordinates incident response.
- PoC
- Proof of concept: public material that demonstrates or helps reproduce exploitation.
- CSAF
- Common Security Advisory Framework: a machine-readable format for security advisories.
- LoTL
- Living off the land: abuse of legitimate tools or system functions during an attack.