CVE-2016-6595

The SwarmKit toolkit 1.12.0 for Docker allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (prevention of cluster joins) via a long sequence of join and quit actions. NOTE: the vendor disputes this issue, stating that this sequence is not "removing the state that is left by old nodes. At some point the manager obviously stops being able to accept new nodes, since it runs out of memory. Given that both for Docker swarm and for Docker Swarmkit nodes are *required* to provide a secret token (it's actually the only mode of operation), this means that no adversary can simply join nodes and exhaust manager resources. We can't do anything about a manager running out of memory and not being able to add new legitimate nodes to the system. This is merely a resource provisioning issue, and definitely not a CVE worthy vulnerability.

Published: 2017-01-04 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-6595 is rated Moderate Risk (56.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.45%). EPSS rose +1.80% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2016-6595

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 0.65% 2.45% +1.80%
2 2025-09-14 0.79% 0.65% -0.14%
3 2025-07-12 — 0.79% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-6595

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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: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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P 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:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-6595

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-6595

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2016-6595 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (docker.io), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-6595
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-6595
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-6595 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (docker.io), 4 status rows across 4 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 2, needs-triage 1, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-6595

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-6595

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
docker docker 1.12.0 cpe:2.3:a:docker:docker:1.12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-6595

cvelogic Threat Intelligence