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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2016-10197 json

The search_make_new function in evdns.c in libevent before 2.1.6-beta allows attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) vi…

published 2017-03-15 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-1382

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
5.2%
EPSS 5.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 92%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The search_make_new function in evdns.c in libevent before 2.1.6-beta allows attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) via an empty hostname.

Patch / fix

  • libevent Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.0.21-stable-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-10197

  • firefox Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 53.0+build6-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
  • firefox Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 53.0+build6-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
  • libevent Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.0.21-stable-1ubuntu1.14.04.2
  • libevent Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.0.21-stable-2ubuntu0.16.04.1
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:52.1.1+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
  • thunderbird Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:52.1.1+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-10197

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • firefox RHEL 7 52.1.0-2.el7_3
  • firefox RHEL 6 52.1.0-2.el6_9
  • thunderbird RHEL 6 52.1.0-1.el6_9
  • thunderbird RHEL 7 52.1.0-1.el7_3

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:1106RHSA-2017:1104RHSA-2017:1201

  • libevent SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 1.4.5-24.24.3.1
  • libevent SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 +6 more 2.0.21-6.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:0263-1SUSE-SU-2018:0200-1

  • libevent Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +16 more 2.1.8-r0
  • libevent Alpine 3.4, Alpine 3.3, Alpine 3.2 2.0.22-r1
  • libevent Alpine 3.5 2.0.22-r2

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2016-10197

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • libevent Arch Linux 2.0.22-3

arch linux advisories AVG-214

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2016-10197 updated cvss 7.5

libevent: Out-of-bounds read in search_make_new()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 firefox, libevent, thunderbird Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libevent Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 libevent
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) firefox 52.1.0-2.el7_3, thunderbird 52.1.0-1.el7_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1201
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) firefox 52.1.0-2.el7_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1106
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) firefox 52.1.0-2.el6_9, thunderbird 52.1.0-1.el6_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) firefox 52.1.0-2.el6_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) firefox 52.1.0-2.el6_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) firefox 52.1.0-2.el6_9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1104
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) firefox 52.1.0-2.el7_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1106
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) firefox 52.1.0-2.el6_9, thunderbird 52.1.0-1.el6_9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1104
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) firefox 52.1.0-2.el7_3, thunderbird 52.1.0-1.el7_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1201
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) firefox 52.1.0-2.el6_9, thunderbird 52.1.0-1.el6_9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1104
show 4 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) firefox 52.1.0-2.el7_3, thunderbird 52.1.0-1.el7_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1201
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) firefox 52.1.0-2.el6_9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1104
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) firefox 52.1.0-2.el7_3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1106
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 openmpi, nfs-utils Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 openmpi, nfs-utils, chromium-browser Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 openmpi, openmpi3, nfs-utils, libnfsidmap, compat-openmpi16
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

5.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 92% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/libevent/libevent/issues/332 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.