CVE-2016-5418

Exp

The sandboxing code in libarchive 3.2.0 and earlier mishandles hardlink archive entries of non-zero data size, which might allow remote attackers to write to arbitrary files via a crafted archive file.

Published: 2016-09-21 Last update: 2026-05-06 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-5418 is rated High Exploit Risk (77.6/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.67%, 91th percentile). 3 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-2016-5418

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— 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-2016-5418

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 3.79% 4.67% +0.88%
2 2026-06-08 5.22% 3.79% -1.44%
3 2025-03-30 — 5.22% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-5418

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-5418

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-5418

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-5418 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libarchive), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-5418
gentoo normal CVE-2016-5418: 1 GLSA(s) (201701-03), 1 atom(s) (app-arch/libarchive); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-5418
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-5418
suse medium CVE-2016-5418 severity moderate: SUSE including 272 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 295 product×package rows across 48 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 7, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1, … (48 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Fixed 64. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-5418/
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-5418 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libarchive), 5 status rows across 5 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety): released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-5418

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-5418

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_hpc_node 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_hpc_node:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle linux 6 cpe:2.3:o:oracle:linux:6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle linux 7 cpe:2.3:o:oracle:linux:7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift 3.1 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift:3.1:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
redhat openshift 3.2 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift:3.2:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
libarchive libarchive <= 3.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:libarchive:libarchive:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_hpc_node 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_hpc_node:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_hpc_node_eus 7.2 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_hpc_node_eus:7.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_aus 7.2 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_aus:7.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.2 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_eus:7.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-5418

URL Tags
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1844.html Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1850.html Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/08/09/2 Exploit Technical Description
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinjul2016-3090544.html Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93165
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016:1852 Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016:1853 Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1362601 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/e48209b03f1dd9625a992717e7b89c4f Exploit Technical Description
https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/commit/dfd6b54ce33960e420fb206d8872fb759b577ad9 Patch
https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/issues/746 Exploit Patch
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-03
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