CVE-2016-2379

The Mxit protocol uses weak encryption when encrypting user passwords, which might allow attackers to (1) decrypt hashed passwords by leveraging knowledge of client registration codes or (2) gain login access by eavesdropping on login messages and re-using the hashed passwords.

Published: 2017-03-29 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2016-2379 is rated Moderate Risk (48.3/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.16%). Mandatory action: 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-2016-2379

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 2025-09-20 0.14% 0.16% +0.01%
2 2023-03-07 1.02% 0.14% -0.87%
3 2022-02-04 1.02%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-2379

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:A)
Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
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.
2.8 5.9 [email protected]
3.3 2.0 LOW
AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:A)
Requires access to an adjacent network segment.
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.
6.5 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-2379

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-2379

vendor priority summary link
gentoo normal CVE-2016-2379: 1 GLSA(s) (201701-38), 1 atom(s) (net-im/pidgin); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-2379
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-2379
ubuntu low CVE-2016-2379 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (pidgin), 23 status rows across 23 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, precise, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 16, ignored 4, needed 2, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-2379

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-2379

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
pidgin mxit cpe:2.3:a:pidgin:mxit:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-2379

cvelogic Threat Intelligence