Cyber Resilience

CVE-2018-1161

Memory Safety in Quest Netvault Backup 11.2.0.13

High EPSSMemory Safety
Published
08 February 2018
Modified
21 November 2024
CVSS Score v3 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.67 99.2th percentile
Risk Priority 95 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2018-1161 is a critical-severity Stack-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-121) vulnerability in Quest Netvault Backup. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, ranked in the top 0.8% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Quest NetVault Backup 11.2.0.13. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within nvwsworker.exe. When parsing the boundary header of a multipart request,…

more

the process does not properly validate the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a stack-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code under the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-4215.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

Likely ATT&CK TechniquesAI

Techniques this vulnerability likely enables, inferred from its description, weakness type, and attributed-actor tradecraft. Confidence is per-technique.

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Accessconfidence: HIGH
Remote unauthenticated stack buffer overflow in a public-facing web service component enables arbitrary code execution.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalationconfidence: HIGH
Successful exploitation grants SYSTEM-level privileges, directly constituting privilege escalation via exploitation.
inferred from description + CWE · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-55899Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2025-27151Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2009-0927Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2025-69986Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2025-46836Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2024-31449Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2026-33250Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2024-39950Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2025-34108Shared CWE-121, CWE-20
CVE-2025-34124Shared CWE-121, CWE-20

Affected Assets

quest
netvault backup
11.2.0.13

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 8 hardening rules · 4 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-20

Security testing and developer training directly verify and enforce proper input validation, reducing exploitability of injection and malformed-data weaknesses.

addresses: CWE-20

Security testing and evaluation at multiple SDLC stages directly detects missing or flawed input validation, with the required remediation process ensuring fixes are applied.

addresses: CWE-20

Directly implements checks on information inputs to reject invalid data before processing.

addresses: CWE-20

Spam protection mechanisms perform filtering and detection on inbound/outbound messages, directly compensating for missing or weak input validation of unsolicited content.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure-development practices directly prevent introduction of stack buffer overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning can discover stack buffer overflows but does not prevent their introduction.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching eliminates known instances of the weakness after discovery.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

detects

Security testing (fuzzing, static analysis) detects stack overflows before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates buffer-safety practices that directly prevent stack overflows.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify buffer-size and input-validation rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include memory-safety and least-privilege stack usage.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer handling that causes CWE-121.

none

Change-management gates can enforce security reviews that catch buffer issues.

References