CVE-2016-7408

The dbclient in Dropbear SSH before 2016.74 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted (1) -m or (2) -c argument.

Published: 2017-03-03 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-7408 is rated High Risk (68.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.97%). EPSS rose +2.45% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize 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-2016-7408

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 1.52% 3.97% +2.45%
2 2026-03-04 0.78% 1.52% +0.74%
3 2026-03-01 — 0.78% —

Full EPSS history (42 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-7408

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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: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.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]
6.5 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-7408

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-7408

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-7408 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dropbear), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-7408
gentoo normal CVE-2016-7408: 1 GLSA(s) (201702-23), 1 atom(s) (net-misc/dropbear); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-7408
ubuntu low CVE-2016-7408 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dropbear), 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 19, DNE 1, ignored 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-7408

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-7408

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
dropbear_ssh_project dropbear_ssh <= 2016.73 cpe:2.3:a:dropbear_ssh_project:dropbear_ssh:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-7408

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/09/15/2 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/92970 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1376353 Issue Tracking
https://secure.ucc.asn.au/hg/dropbear/rev/eed9376a4ad6 Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201702-23 Patch Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
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