CVE-2016-10243

Exp

TeX Live allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands by leveraging inclusion of mpost in shell_escape_commands in the texmf.cnf config file.

Published: 2017-05-02 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-10243 is rated High Exploit Risk (83.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 7.15%, 93th percentile). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2016-10243

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-10243

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 10.59% 7.15% -3.44%
2 2026-05-08 9.88% 10.59% +0.71%
3 2026-01-30 — 9.88% —

Full EPSS history (21 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-10243

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-10243

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-10243

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2016-10243 unimportant priority: Debian including 2 source packages (texlive-base, texlive-bin), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-10243
gentoo normal CVE-2016-10243: 1 GLSA(s) (201709-07), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/kpathsea); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-10243
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-10243
suse high CVE-2016-10243 severity important: SUSE including 17372 source package names (libkpathsea6, libkpathsea6-6.2.3-11.8.4, …), 45024 product×package rows across 60 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.5, SUSE Enterprise Storage 7, … (60 product lines)): Fixed 40416, Known Not Affected 4608. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-10243/
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-10243 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (texlive-base, texlive-bin), 14 status rows across 7 suites (artful, precise, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 5, ignored 4, released 3, DNE 1, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-10243

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-10243

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 25 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:25:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 26 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:26:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tug tex_live — cpe:2.3:a:tug:tex_live:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-10243

cvelogic Threat Intelligence