CVE-2016-10254

The allocate_elf function in common.h in elfutils before 0.168 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a crafted ELF file, which triggers a memory allocation failure.

Published: 2017-03-23 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-10254 is rated Moderate Risk (48.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.57%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-10254

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 0.60% 1.57% +0.97%
2 2025-05-22 0.47% 0.60% +0.13%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.47% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-10254

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-10254

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-10254

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2016-10254 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (elfutils), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-10254
gentoo normal CVE-2016-10254: 1 GLSA(s) (201710-10), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/elfutils); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-10254
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-10254
suse low CVE-2016-10254 severity low: SUSE including 50 source package names (24.56:elfutils-0.158-7.7.2, 24.56:libasm1-0.158-7.7.2, …), 245 product×package rows across 41 product lines (Container caasp/v4/nginx-ingress-controller, Container suse/ltss/sle12.5/sles12sp5, … (41 product lines)): Fixed 245. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-10254/
ubuntu low CVE-2016-10254 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (elfutils), 14 status rows across 14 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, precise, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): released 11, ignored 3. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-10254

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-10254

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
elfutils_project elfutils <= 0.167 cpe:2.3:a:elfutils_project:elfutils:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-10254

cvelogic Threat Intelligence