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HIGH

CVE-2018-20483

CVSS v3

7.8

HIGH

EPSS Score

0.7 %

exploit probability, as of 2026-10-20

CISA KEV

No

known exploited

Exploitation

—

SSVC status

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Affected and fixed versions

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2018-20483 Red Hat Product Security45 products fixed · 4 known affected

    wget: Information exposure in set_file_metadata function in xattr.c

    curl as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 · curl.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 · libcurl as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

  • RHSA-2019:3701 Red Hat Product Security45 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: curl security and bug fix update

Full record on NVD

Description

set_file_metadata in xattr.c in GNU Wget before 1.20.1 stores a file's origin URL in the user.xdg.origin.url metadata attribute of the extended attributes of the downloaded file, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information (e.g., credentials contained in the URL) by reading this attribute, as demonstrated by getfattr. This also applies to Referer information in the user.xdg.referrer.url metadata attribute. According to 2016-07-22 in the Wget ChangeLog, user.xdg.origin.url was partially based on the behavior of fwrite_xattr in tool_xattr.c in curl.

Technical details

Published
2018-12-26

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-20483?

set_file_metadata in xattr.c in GNU Wget before 1.20.1 stores a file's origin URL in the user.xdg.origin.url metadata attribute of the extended attributes of the downloaded file, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information (e.g., credentials contained in the URL) by reading this attribute, as demonstrated by getfattr. This also applies to Referer information in the user.xdg.referrer.url metadata attribute. According to 2016-07-22 in the Wget ChangeLog, user.xdg.origin.url was partially based on the behavior of fwrite_xattr in tool_xattr.c in curl.

Is CVE-2018-20483 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-20483 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.7% on 2026-10-20, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-20483?

CVE-2018-20483 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity).

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