CVE-2016-9318

Exp

libxml2 2.9.4 and earlier, as used in XMLSec 1.2.23 and earlier and other products, does not offer a flag directly indicating that the current document may be read but other files may not be opened, which makes it easier for remote attackers to conduct XML External Entity (XXE) attacks via a crafted document.

Published: 2016-11-15 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-9318 is rated High Exploit Risk (69.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.94%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +2.84% 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-2016-9318

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-9318

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 0.10% 2.94% +2.84%
2 2026-05-30 0.15% 0.10% -0.05%
3 2026-04-25 — 0.15% —

Full EPSS history (18 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-9318

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:H/I:N/A:N 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: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.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N 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: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.
 1.8 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/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:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-9318

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-9318

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2016-9318: 2 source package rows (libxml2, libxml2.13); 21 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 16, open 5. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2016-9318
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-9318 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libxml2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-9318
gentoo normal CVE-2016-9318: 1 GLSA(s) (201711-01), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/libxml2); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-9318
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-9318
suse medium CVE-2016-9318 severity moderate: SUSE including 48 source package names (0.9.1:libxml2-2-2.9.4-33.1, 1.0.0:libxml2-2-2.9.4-33.1, …), 154 product×package rows across 68 product lines (Container caasp/v4/default-http-backend, Container caasp/v4/dnsmasq-nanny, … (68 product lines)): Fixed 154. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-9318/
ubuntu low CVE-2016-9318 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libxml2), 8 status rows across 8 suites (artful, bionic, precise, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): ignored 4, released 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-9318

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-9318

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
xmlsoft libxml2 <= 2.9.4 cpe:2.3:a:xmlsoft:libxml2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-9318

URL Tags
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94347 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=772726 Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://github.com/lsh123/xmlsec/issues/43 Exploit Patch Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/04/msg00004.html
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201711-01 Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3739-2/ Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence