CVE-2016-2203

Exp

The management console on Symantec Messaging Gateway (SMG) Appliance devices before 10.6.1 allows local users to discover an encrypted AD password by leveraging certain read privileges.

Published: 2016-04-22 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2016-2203 is rated High Exploit Risk (73.9/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 7.06%, 93th percentile). Core evidence: 4 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: 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-2016-2203

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
39715 exploit_db edb 2016-04-21 Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-2203

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 29.57% 7.06% -22.51%
2 2025-09-23 33.48% 29.57% -3.91%
3 2025-07-27 33.48%

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-2203

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
1.8 5.9 [email protected]
2.1 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
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:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
3.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-2203

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-2203

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
symantec messaging_gateway 10.6.0 cpe:2.3:a:symantec:messaging_gateway:10.6.0:patch3:*:*:*:*:*:*
symantec messaging_gateway 10.6.0 cpe:2.3:a:symantec:messaging_gateway:10.6.0:patch5:*:*:*:*:*:*
symantec messaging_gateway 10.6.0 cpe:2.3:a:symantec:messaging_gateway:10.6.0:patch7:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-2203

cvelogic Threat Intelligence