CVE-2016-3861

Exp

LibUtils in Android 4.x before 4.4.4, 5.0.x before 5.0.2, 5.1.x before 5.1.1, 6.x before 2016-09-01, and 7.0 before 2016-09-01 mishandles conversions between Unicode character encodings with different encoding widths, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer overflow) via a crafted file, aka internal bug 29250543.

Published: 2016-09-11 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-3861 is rated High Exploit Risk (78.3/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 11.17%, 95th 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-2016-3861

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
40354 exploit_db edb 2016-09-08 Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-3861

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 12.45% 11.17% -1.27%
2 2025-07-07 11.48% 12.45% +0.96%
3 2025-03-30 — 11.48% —

Full EPSS history (21 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-3861

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:N/UI:R/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: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: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]
9.3 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.6 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-3861

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-3861

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2016-3861 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (android-platform-system-core), 1 status rows across 1 suites (bullseye): resolved 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-3861
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-3861 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (android, android-platform-system-core), 35 status rows across 19 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, mantic, noble, oracular, precise, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): DNE 17, not-affected 9, ignored 7, needs-triage 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-3861

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-3861

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
google android 4.0 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.0.1 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.0.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.0.2 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.0.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.0.3 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.0.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.0.4 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.0.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.1 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.1.2 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.1.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.2 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.2.1 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.2.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.2.2 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.3 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.3.1 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.3.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.4 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.4.1 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.4.2 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.4.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 4.4.3 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:4.4.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 5.0 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 5.0.1 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:5.0.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 5.1 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:5.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 5.1.0 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:5.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 6.0.1 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:6.0.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google android 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:google:android:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-3861

cvelogic Threat Intelligence