Description
A memory leak was discovered in the backport of fixes for CVE-2018-16864 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Function dispatch_message_real() in journald-server.c does not free the memory allocated by set_iovec_field_free() to store the `_CMDLINE=` entry. A local attacker may use this flaw to make systemd-journald crash. This issue only affects versions shipped with Red Hat Enterprise since v219-62.2.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| The systemd Project | systemd | v219-62.2 and newer | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 8 | systemd | 215-17+deb8u11 | DLA-1711-1 |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 7 | systemd +9 | 219-62.el7_6.3 | RHSA-2019:0201 |
Amazon Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2 | systemd +9 | 219-78.amzn2.0.14 | ALAS2-2021-1647 |
Oracle Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 7 | systemd +9 | 219-62.0.4.el7_6.3 | ELSA-2019-0201 |
Advisories 4
- RHSA-2019:0201 Red Hat Security Advisory: systemd security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 26, 2026
- DLA-1711-1 systemd - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- ALAS2-2021-1647 Moderate: systemd security update (Amazon Linux 2) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · Sep 23, 2025
- ELSA-2019-0201 Low: systemd security update (Oracle Linux 7) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Jan 30, 2019
References
- [debian-lts-announce] 20190313 [SECURITY] [DLA 1711-1] systemd security update mailing-list
- 106632 vdb-entry
- RHSA-2019:0201 vendor-advisory
- RHBA-2019:0327 vendor-advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-3815