CVE-2016-7798

Exp

The openssl gem for Ruby uses the same initialization vector (IV) in GCM Mode (aes-*-gcm) when the IV is set before the key, which makes it easier for context-dependent attackers to bypass the encryption protection mechanism.

Published: 2017-01-30 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-7798 is rated High Exploit Risk (77.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.17%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +2.61% 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-2016-7798

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-7798

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 0.56% 3.17% +2.61%
2 2026-04-23 0.79% 0.56% -0.23%
3 2026-03-04 — 0.79% —

Full EPSS history (28 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-7798

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
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:P/I:N/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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-7798

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2016-7798

GHSA-6h88-qjpv-p32m · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rubygems — OpenSSL gem for Ruby using inadequate encryption strength

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-7798

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-7798 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (ruby-attr-encrypted, ruby-encryptor), 8 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, bullseye, sid, trixie): resolved 8. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-7798
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-7798
suse medium CVE-2016-7798 severity moderate: SUSE including 15 source package names (libruby2_1-2_1-2.1.9-19.3.2, ruby, …), 145 product×package rows across 48 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, … (48 product lines)): Fixed 125, Known Not Affected 20. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-7798/
ubuntu low CVE-2016-7798 low priority: Ubuntu including 7 source packages (ruby-attr-encrypted, ruby-encryptor, …), 161 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): DNE 110, not-affected 28, ignored 9, needs-triage 7, released 5, needed 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-7798

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-7798

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ruby-lang openssl < 2.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:openssl:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-7798

cvelogic Threat Intelligence