CVE-2018-7445
Memory Safety in Mikrotik Routeros ≤ 6.41.3
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2018-7445 is a critical-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Mikrotik Routeros. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 0.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the SMB service of MikroTik RouterOS when handling NetBIOS session request messages. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2018-7445 and assigned CWE-119, affects all architectures and devices running RouterOS versions prior to 6.41.3 and 6.42rc27. It occurs in the service component responsible for processing unauthenticated session requests over the network.
Remote attackers with network access to the SMB service can exploit the overflow to achieve arbitrary code execution on the target device. Because the overflow is triggered before any authentication step, the attack requires no credentials and can be carried out by an unauthenticated adversary, resulting in full system compromise as reflected by the CVSS 9.8 score.
Public advisories and exploit references indicate that the issue is resolved by upgrading to RouterOS 6.41.3, 6.42rc27, or later releases. The provided references, including disclosures from Core Security and Exploit-DB, focus on the pre-authentication nature of the flaw and the availability of these patched versions for mitigation.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2018-19176
Vulnerability Data
A buffer overflow was found in the MikroTik RouterOS SMB service when processing NetBIOS session request messages. Remote attackers with access to the service can exploit this vulnerability and gain code execution on the system. The overflow occurs before authentication…
more
takes place, so it is possible for an unauthenticated remote attacker to exploit it. All architectures and all devices running RouterOS before versions 6.41.3/6.42rc27 are vulnerable.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 08 September 2022
Related Threats
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
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.
Ongoing control assessments and code testing (static/dynamic analysis, fuzzing) surface memory buffer restriction failures, which are then remediated before release.
Managed runtimes used by platform-independent applications (e.g., JVM, CLR) enforce memory safety, preventing most buffer overflows that require direct memory manipulation.
Memory protections (e.g., W^X, ASLR) make exploitation of buffer-boundary violations far harder to turn into code execution.
Detects exploitation attempts that produce memory corruption, crashes, or anomalous behavior.
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.
A.8.25 mandates secure SDLC practices (secure coding guidelines, security requirements, testing including code scans and penetration tests, developer training) that reach buffer management and can stop many buffer overruns from reaching production, but leaves a bounded remainder (e.g. flaws in non-software components, incomplete enforcement of guidelines, or post-deployment changes)
Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.
A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles (e.g. least privilege, fail securely, distrust external input, hardening) plus design reviews that can catch and stop buffer-boundary errors before they reach code, but this is only one minority slice of CWE-119's broad surface (language-specific flaws, unsafe library use, compiler/runtime mitigations, and post-deployment instances remain outside its direct scope).
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.
Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.
Hardening callouts derived
DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.
- No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-119, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-823.