CVE-2016-4484 [Medium] | Authentication Bypass in Cryptsetup

CVE-2016-4484 is rated High Exploit Risk (64.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.46%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

EDB-ID

Source

Kind

Published

Link

—

nvd_ref

exploit_tag

Exploit-DB ↗

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2025-07-11	0.45%	0.46%	+0.01%
2	2025-07-09	0.53%	0.45%	-0.08%
3	2025-07-06	—	0.53%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2025-07-11

0.45%

0.46%

+0.01%

2025-07-09

0.53%

0.45%

-0.08%

2025-07-06

—

0.53%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.8	3.0	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:P) Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire. 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.	0.9	5.9	[email protected]
7.2	2.0	HIGH	`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C` 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:C) Complete confidentiality impact. Integrity impact (I:C) Complete integrity impact. Availability impact (A:C) Complete availability impact.	3.9	10.0	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

6.8

3.0

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:P): Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
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.

0.9

5.9

[email protected]

7.2

2.0

HIGH

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C): Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C): Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C): Complete availability impact.

3.9

10.0

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-4484

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2016-4484 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (cryptsetup), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-4484
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-4484
`suse`	low	CVE-2016-4484 severity low: SUSE including 11 source package names (dracut, dracut-fips, …), 40 product×package rows across 16 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1, … (16 product lines)): Known Not Affected 40.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-4484/
`ubuntu`	low	CVE-2016-4484 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (cryptsetup), 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 13, ignored 8, needed 1, released 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-4484

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-4484

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
cryptsetup_project	cryptsetup	<= 2.1.7.3-2	cpe:2.3:a:cryptsetup_project:cryptsetup::::::::

References for CVE-2016-4484

URL	Tags
http://hmarco.org/bugs/CVE-2016-4484/CVE-2016-4484_cryptsetup_initrd_shell.html	Exploit Mitigation Technical Description Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/14/13	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/15/1	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/15/4	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/16/6	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94315
https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/commit/ef8a7d82d8d3716ae9b58179590f7908981fa0cb	Patch

URL

CVE-2016-4484

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2016-4484

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-4484

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-4484

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-4484

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-4484

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-4484

References for CVE-2016-4484