Is CVE-2018-15686 in the CISA KEV catalog?

No. CVE-2018-15686 is not currently on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list.

What is the CVSS severity of CVE-2018-15686?

CVE-2018-15686 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH).

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2018-15686?

CVE-2018-15686 has an EPSS score of 2.28% (81th percentile), estimating the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How do I fix CVE-2018-15686?

Upgrade systemd on debian 11 to 239-12 or later. Fixes are available for 2 affected products.

CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2018-15686

HIGHEPSS 81th pctl

7.8

CVSS v3

NVD

Description

A vulnerability in unit_deserialize of systemd allows an attacker to supply arbitrary state across systemd re-execution via NotifyAccess. This can be used to improperly influence systemd execution and possibly lead to root privilege escalation. Affected releases are systemd versions up to and including 239.

CWE-502Deserialization of Untrusted Data

How to fix

Remediation Available

systemdDebian

Fixed in:239-12CVE-2018-15686

systemdUbuntu

Fixed in:229-4ubuntu21.8USN-3816-1

Fixed in:237-3ubuntu10.6USN-3816-1

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorLocal

Attack ComplexityLow

Privileges RequiredLow

User InteractionNone

ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityHigh

IntegrityHigh

AvailabilityHigh

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploit Intelligence

2.28%probability of exploitation in 30 days

81stpercentile

Elevated risk: more likely to be exploited than 81% of all known CVEs.

References

Patch1

github.com

Exploit1

exploit-db.com

Third-Party Advisory8

Other references1

lists.apache.org

Related Vulnerabilities

Other CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all

CVE	Severity	CVSS	EPSS	Exploited	Fix
CVE-2023-0669	High	7.2	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2021-44228	Critical	10.0	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2021-35464	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2023-29300	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	-
CVE-2025-53770	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2022-47986	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	-

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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-06-09.