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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2017-16611 json

In libXfont before 1.5.4 and libXfont2 before 2.0.3, a local attacker can open (but not read) files on the system as root, triggering tape…

published 2017-12-01 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-7802

cvss
5.5
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 36%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In libXfont before 1.5.4 and libXfont2 before 2.0.3, a local attacker can open (but not read) files on the system as root, triggering tape rewinds, watchdogs, or similar mechanisms that can be triggered by opening files.

Patch / fix

  • x libxfont 1.5.4, 2.0.3
  • libxfont Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:2.0.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-16611

  • libxfont Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:1.4.7-1ubuntu0.4
  • libxfont Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:1.5.1-1ubuntu0.16.04.4
  • libxfont2 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:2.0.1-3~ubuntu16.04.3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-16611

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

  • libXfont openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.5.4-2.18
  • libXfont2 openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.0.5-1.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10921-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10922-1

  • libxfont Alpine 3.17, Alpine 3.16, Alpine 3.15 +8 more 1.5.4-r0
  • libxfont2 Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +15 more 2.0.3-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2017-16611

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

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-2017-16611 updated cvss 2.8

libXfont: User can trigger arbitrary file read by X server causing a DoS

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 libXfont Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 libXfont Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 libXfont, libXfont2
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”

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

0.42% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 36% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.9 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

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.