CVE-2016-9646 | Commit metadata forgery via CGI::FormBuilder context-dependent APIs

ikiwiki before 3.20161229 incorrectly called the CGI::FormBuilder->field method (similar to the CGI->param API that led to Bugzilla's CVE-2014-1572), which can be abused to lead to commit metadata forgery.

Published: 2018-04-13 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2016-9646 is rated Moderate Risk (44.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.18%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.04% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule 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-2016-9646

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 0.14% 1.18% +1.04%
2 2026-06-04 0.26% 0.14% -0.12%
3 2025-03-17 0.26%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-9646

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-9646

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-9646

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-9646 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ikiwiki), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-9646
ubuntu medium CVE-2016-9646 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ikiwiki), 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, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-9646

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-9646

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ikiwiki ikiwiki < 3.20161229 cpe:2.3:a:ikiwiki:ikiwiki:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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-2016-9646

cvelogic Threat Intelligence