The decompress function in compress42.c in (1) ncompress 4.2.4 and (2) liblzw allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash), and possibly execute arbitrary code, via crafted data that leads to a buffer underflow.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2006-1168 is rated Moderate Risk (57.7/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 5.42%, 92th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-06-15 | 9.81% | 5.42% | -4.39% |
| 2 | 2025-04-02 | 7.76% | 9.81% | +2.06% |
| 3 | 2025-03-30 | — | 7.76% | — |
Full EPSS history (11 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.5 | 2.0 | HIGH |
|
10.0 | 6.4 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2006-1168 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ncompress), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2006-1168 |
gentoo
|
normal | CVE-2006-1168: 2 GLSA(s) (200610-03, 201312-02), 2 atom(s) (app-arch/ncompress, sys-apps/busybox); latest impact normal. | https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2006-1168 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2006-1168 |
suse
|
medium | CVE-2006-1168 severity moderate: SUSE including 1 source package names (ncompress-4.2.4.4-1.1), 1 product×package rows across 1 product lines (openSUSE Tumbleweed): Fixed 1. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2006-1168/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2006-1168 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ncompress), 8 status rows across 8 suites (dapper, edgy, feisty, gutsy, hardy, intrepid, jaunty, upstream): released 7, needs-triage 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2006-1168 |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is not vulnerable to this issue as it contains a backported patch.