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CVE-2016-4472

34
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-4472 describes a denial-of-service or potential arbitrary code execution vulnerability in Expat, affecting products like Canonical, McAfee, and Python. This flaw arises from compilers removing overflow protection under specific optimization settings, allowing remote attackers to exploit it with crafted XML data. Rated 8.1 HIGH, it has a network attack vector and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, but requires high attack complexity. There is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code, or significant community discussion.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 2.1.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:libexpat_project:libexpat:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
12.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
< 6.5.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:mcafee:policy_auditor:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 2.7.0, < 2.7.15CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:python:python:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 3.3.0, < 3.3.7CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:python:python:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

8.1HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
2.2
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
12.37%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
95.8%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-25
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.1237 is in the 78th percentile among its peer group of 8,914 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (15)

redhatpatch availablevia nvd_reference
View patch
redhatvendor investigatingvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Directory Server 8Fixed in: expat
redhatno patchvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: thunderbird
redhatno patchvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: firefox
redhatno patchvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: firefox
redhatno patchvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: thunderbird
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: compat-expat1
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: xulrunner
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: expat
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: xulrunner
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: expat
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: firefox
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: thunderbird
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: xmlrpc-c
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: xulrunner

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2016-4472Moderate

expat: Undefined behavior and pointer overflows

May 15, 2016

References

bugzilla.redhat.com / show_bug.cgi
Issue TrackingPatchThird Party Advisory
kc.mcafee.com / corporate/index
Third Party Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201701-21
Third Party Advisory
sourceforge.net / p/expat/code_git/ci/f0bec73b018caa07d3e75ec8dd967f3785d71bde
PatchThird Party Advisory
tenable.com / security/tns-2016-20
Third Party Advisory
securityfocus.com / bid/91528
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
ubuntu.com / usn/USN-3013-1
Third Party Advisory