(1) libdwarf/dwarf_leb.c and (2) dwarfdump/print_frames.c in libdwarf before 20161124 allow remote attackers to have unspecified impact via a crafted bit pattern in a signed leb number, aka a "negation overflow."
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2016-9558 is rated High Exploit Risk (85.8/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.68%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.52% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: 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.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ |
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 | 2026-04-17 | 1.16% | 2.68% | +1.52% |
| 2 | 2025-03-30 | 4.26% | 1.16% | -3.10% |
| 3 | 2025-03-29 | — | 4.26% | — |
Full EPSS history (6 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.8 | 3.1 | CRITICAL |
|
3.9 | 5.9 | [email protected] |
| 7.5 | 2.0 | HIGH |
|
10.0 | 6.4 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2016-9558 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-2016-9558 |
redhat
|
low | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-9558 |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2016-9558 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 18, ignored 2, DNE 1, needed 1, released 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-9558 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| libdwarf_project | libdwarf | >= 1999-12-14, < 2016-11-24 | cpe:2.3:a:libdwarf_project:libdwarf:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/19/6 | Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory |
| http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/23/3 | Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory |
| http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94491 | Third Party Advisory VDB Entry |
| https://blogs.gentoo.org/ago/2016/11/19/libdwarf-negation-overflow-in-dwarf_leb-c/ | Exploit Patch Third Party Advisory VDB Entry |
| https://sourceforge.net/p/libdwarf/code/ci/4f19e1050cd8e9ddf2cb6caa061ff2fec4c9b5f9/#diff-5 | Third Party Advisory |
| https://www.prevanders.net/dwarfbug.html | Third Party Advisory |