Summary
Memory corruption slice-deque
Affected versions of this crate did not properly update the head and tail of the deque when inserting and removing elements from the front if, before insertion or removal, the tail of the deque was in the mirrored memory region, and if, after insertion or removal, the head of the deque is exactly at the beginning of the mirrored memory region.
An attacker that controls both element insertion and removal into the deque could put it in a corrupted state. Once the deque enters such an state, its head and tail are corrupted, but in bounds of the allocated memory. This can result in partial reads and writes, reads of uninitialized memory, reads of memory containing previously dropped objects, etc. An attacker could exploit this to alter program execution.
The flaw was corrected by properly updating the head and tail of the deque in this case.
Impact
CVE-2018-20995 has a CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (0.1.16); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2018-20995? CVE-2018-20995 is a critical-severity security vulnerability in slice-deque (rust), affecting versions < 0.1.16. It is fixed in 0.1.16.
- How severe is CVE-2018-20995? CVE-2018-20995 has a CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of slice-deque are affected by CVE-2018-20995? slice-deque (rust) versions < 0.1.16 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2018-20995? Yes. CVE-2018-20995 is fixed in 0.1.16. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2018-20995 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2018-20995 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2018-20995 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2018-20995? Upgrade
slice-dequeto 0.1.16 or later.