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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2016-5384 json

fontconfig before 2.12.1 does not validate offsets, which allows local users to trigger arbitrary free calls and consequently conduct doubl…

published 2016-08-12 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-6334

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 34%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

fontconfig before 2.12.1 does not validate offsets, which allows local users to trigger arbitrary free calls and consequently conduct double free attacks and execute arbitrary code via a crafted cache file.

Patch / fix

  • fontconfig_project fontconfig 2.12.1
  • fontconfig Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.11.0-6.5

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-5384

  • fontconfig Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.2
  • fontconfig Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.11.94-0ubuntu1.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-5384

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

  • fontconfig RHEL 7 2.10.95-10.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:2601

  • fontconfig SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1, SLED 12 SP1 +1 more 2.11.0-6.1
  • fontconfig SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 2.6.0-10.19.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:2190-1SUSE-SU-2016:2186-1

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-2016-5384 updated cvss 4.5

fontconfig: Possible double free due to insufficiently validated cache files

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 fontconfig Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 fontconfig Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3 mingw-virt-viewer, mingw32-virt-viewer, mingw64-virt-viewer
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) fontconfig 2.10.95-10.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) fontconfig-devel 2.10.95-10.el7, fontconfig-debuginfo 2.10.95-10.el7, fontconfig-devel-doc 2.10.95-10.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) fontconfig 2.10.95-10.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) fontconfig-devel 2.10.95-10.el7, fontconfig-debuginfo 2.10.95-10.el7, fontconfig-devel-doc 2.10.95-10.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) fontconfig 2.10.95-10.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) fontconfig-devel-doc 2.10.95-10.el7
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) fontconfig 2.10.95-10.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) fontconfig-devel-doc 2.10.95-10.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:2601

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

0.40% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 34% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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.