CVE-2018-0499 — xapian-core
MEDIUMCVE-2018-0499 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in xapian-core. A fix is available for xapian-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
xapian-core Cross-site Scripting vulnerability
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
xapian-coreReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A cross-site scripting vulnerability in queryparser/termgenerator_internal.cc in Xapian xapian-core before 1.4.6 exists due to incomplete HTML escaping by Xapian::MSet::snippet().
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | xapian-core | all versions | 1.4.6bundle update xapian-core --conservative |
Affected Products
ubuntu linuxcanonicalxapian-corexapianDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for xapian-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update xapian-core to 1.4.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-0499 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2018-0499 in your dependencies?
Find it across RubyGems, including transitive dependencies.