Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2018-6981

Q: Is CVE-2018-6981 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-6981 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.3% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Q: What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-6981?

CVE-2018-6981 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

Published2018-12-04
WeaknessCWE-908

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

VMware ESXi 6.7 without ESXi670-201811401-BG and VMware ESXi 6.5 without ESXi650-201811301-BG, VMware ESXi 6.0 without ESXi600-201811401-BG, VMware Workstation 15, VMware Workstation 14.1.3 or below, VMware Fusion 11, VMware Fusion 10.1.3 or below contain uninitialized stack memory usage in the vmxnet3 virtual network adapter which may allow a guest to execute code on the host.

Timeline

dates in UTC

2018-12-0414:29CVE publishedNVD
2026-10-2319:23First public proof of conceptPoC-in-GitHub

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 18:48 UTC

Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days

Block these indicators

Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2018-6981?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2018-6981?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD

Vmware esxi

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
6.0	= 6.0	no fix published	NVD
6.5	= 6.5	no fix published	NVD
6.7	= 6.7	no fix published	NVD

Vmware fusionversion to verify

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
10.x	≥ 10.0.0, < 10.1.4	10.1.4	NVD
11.0	= 11.0.0	no fix published	NVD

Vmware workstation

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
14.x	≥ 14.0.0, < 14.1.4	14.1.4	NVD
15.0	= 15.0.0	no fix published	NVD

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

Advisories and patches

www.vmware.comVendor Advisory

Detection

read 2026-10-23 19:23 UTC

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: 1 repository, unverifiedLxKxC/vmxnet3Hunter

Sources

NVDCVSS 3.18.8read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 2.07.2read 2026-10-23
NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-908read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.3 %2026-10-22
PoC-in-GitHubproof of concept1read 2026-10-23

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published: 2018-12-04
Last Modified: 2026-06-17
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-6981?

Is CVE-2018-6981 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-6981 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.3% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-6981?

CVE-2018-6981 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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