CVE-2016-4486

Exp

The rtnl_fill_link_ifmap function in net/core/rtnetlink.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.5 does not initialize a certain data structure, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel stack memory by reading a Netlink message.

Published: 2016-05-23 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-4486 is rated Exploit Available (55.5/100): CVSS Low severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.71%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.25% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2016-4486

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
46006 exploit_db edb 2018-12-19 Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-4486

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 0.46% 1.71% +1.25%
2 2025-05-18 0.33% 0.46% +0.13%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.33% —

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-4486

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.3 3.0 LOW
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N 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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 1.4 [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-2016-4486

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-4486

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-4486 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-4486
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-4486
suse low CVE-2016-4486 severity low: SUSE including 226 source package names (kernel-bigsmp-3.0.101-0.47.86.1, kernel-bigsmp-base-3.0.101-0.47.86.1, …), 510 product×package rows across 71 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 6, … (71 product lines)): Fixed 371, Known Not Affected 139. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-4486/
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-4486 medium priority: Ubuntu including 99 source packages (linux, linux-armadaxp, …), 828 status rows across 13 suites (artful, bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, precise, trusty, upstream, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): DNE 549, not-affected 133, released 113, ignored 33. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-4486

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-4486

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
novell suse_linux_enterprise_software_development_kit 11.0 cpe:2.3:a:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_software_development_kit:11.0:sp4:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_software_development_kit 12.0 cpe:2.3:a:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_software_development_kit:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_software_development_kit 12.0 cpe:2.3:a:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_software_development_kit:12.0:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_debuginfo 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_debuginfo:11.0:sp4:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_desktop 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_desktop:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_desktop 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_desktop:12.0:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_live_patching 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_live_patching:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_module_for_public_cloud 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_module_for_public_cloud:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_real_time_extension 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_real_time_extension:12.0:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_server 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_server:11.0:extra:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_server 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_server:11.0:sp4:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_server 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_server:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_server 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_server:12.0:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_workstation_extension 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_workstation_extension:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
novell suse_linux_enterprise_workstation_extension 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_workstation_extension:12.0:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 15.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel <= 4.5.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-4486

URL Tags
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=5f8e44741f9f216e33736ea4ec65ca9ac03036e6
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-06/msg00044.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-06/msg00052.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-06/msg00054.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-06/msg00056.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-08/msg00000.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-08/msg00007.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-08/msg00038.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-08/msg00044.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2016-08/msg00055.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3607
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v4.x/ChangeLog-4.5.5
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/05/04/27
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/90051
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2989-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2996-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2997-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2998-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3000-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3001-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3002-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3003-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3004-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3005-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3006-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3007-1 Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1333316 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/5f8e44741f9f216e33736ea4ec65ca9ac03036e6 Vendor Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/46006/
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