CVE-2016-8681

Exp

The _dwarf_get_abbrev_for_code function in dwarf_util.c in libdwarf 20161001 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) by calling the dwarfdump command on a crafted file.

Published: 2017-02-15 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-8681 is rated High Exploit Risk (66.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.08%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.56% 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-2016-8681

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-8681

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 0.52% 2.08% +1.56%
2 2026-04-17 0.86% 0.52% -0.34%
3 2025-09-13 — 0.86% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-8681

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-8681

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-8681

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2016-8681: 1 source package rows (libdwarf); 19 state rows across 6 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, 3.23-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 19. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2016-8681
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-8681 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dwarfutils), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-8681
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-8681
suse low — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-8681/
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-8681 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dwarfutils), 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 16, ignored 4, DNE 1, needed 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-8681

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-8681

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
libdwarf_project libdwarf <= 2016-10-01 cpe:2.3:a:libdwarf_project:libdwarf:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-8681

cvelogic Threat Intelligence