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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2016-5008 json

libvirt before 2.0.0 improperly disables password checking when the password on a VNC server is set to an empty string, which allows remote…

published 2016-07-13 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-5967

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.7%
EPSS 3.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 89%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

libvirt before 2.0.0 improperly disables password checking when the password on a VNC server is set to an empty string, which allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and establish a VNC session by connecting to the server.

Patch / fix

  • libvirt Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.0.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-5008

  • libvirt Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1.2.2-0ubuntu13.1.26
  • libvirt Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1.3.1-1ubuntu10.19

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-5008

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

  • libvirt RHEL 7 2.0.0-10.el7
  • libvirt-nss RHEL 7 2.0.0-10.el7
  • libvirt-client RHEL 7 2.0.0-10.el7
  • libvirt-daemon RHEL 7 2.0.0-10.el7
  • libvirt-daemon-kvm RHEL 7 2.0.0-10.el7
  • libvirt-daemon-lxc storage 3.1, RHEL 7 2.0.0-10.el7
  • libvirt-login-shell storage 3.1, RHEL 7 2.0.0-10.el7
  • libvirt-lock-sanlock storage 3.1, RHEL 7 2.0.0-10.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:2577

  • libvirt SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1, SLED 12 SP1 +2 more 1.2.18.4-11.7
  • libvirt SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 1.2.5-15.3
  • perl-Sys-Virt SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 1.2.5-4.2
  • libvirt SLES 12-LTSS 1.2.5-27.13.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:2141-1SUSE-SU-2016:2053-1SUSE-SU-2016:1944-1

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-2016-5008 updated cvss 5.6

libvirt: Setting empty VNC password allows access to unauthorized users

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libvirt, libvirt-client, libvirt-python, libvirt-lock-sanlock
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3 mingw-virt-viewer, mingw32-virt-viewer, mingw64-virt-viewer
    under investigation
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libvirt 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-client 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-kvm 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-driver-lxc 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu 2.0.0-10.el7, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) libvirt-nss 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-lxc 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-login-shell 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-lock-sanlock 2.0.0-10.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libvirt 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-client 2.0.0-10.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) libvirt 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-nss 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-kvm 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-lxc 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-login-shell 2.0.0-10.el7, +11 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) libvirt 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-client 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-kvm 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-driver-lxc 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu 2.0.0-10.el7, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) libvirt-nss 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-kvm 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-lxc 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-login-shell 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-lock-sanlock 2.0.0-10.el7
    +4 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libvirt 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-client 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-kvm 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-driver-lxc 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu 2.0.0-10.el7, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) libvirt-nss 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-lxc 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-login-shell 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-lock-sanlock 2.0.0-10.el7 Red Hat Gluster Storage Server 3.1 on RHEL-7 libvirt-daemon-lxc 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-login-shell 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-lock-sanlock 2.0.0-10.el7 Red Hat Virtualization 4 Management Agent for RHEL 7 Hosts libvirt 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-daemon-kvm 2.0.0-10.el7, libvirt-lock-sanlock 2.0.0-10.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2577
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 libvirt
    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

3.65% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

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.