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CVE-2016-1531

45
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-1531 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability affecting Exim versions prior to 4.86.2 when installed with setuid root. An attacker can exploit this flaw via the perl_startup argument to gain elevated privileges on the system. With a CVSS score of 7.0 (High), this vulnerability has a low attack complexity but allows for full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. While not on the KEV catalog, multiple public exploits, including a Metasploit module, exist, yet it has received minimal community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 4.86CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:exim:exim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

7.0HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.0
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
5.90%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
92.4%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
Metasploit: Exim "perl_startup" Privilege Escalation · Mar 10, 2016
ExploitDB: EDB-39702 · Apr 15, 2016
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0590 is in the 99th percentile among its peer group of 1,525 CVEs.

Social Chatter

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

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.4 InfoSec Media, 0.1 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Vendor Patches (8)

boschvendor investigatingvia llm_extracted
citrix_adcvendor investigatingvia llm_extracted
View patch
esetvendor investigatingvia llm_extracted
View patch
giteavendor investigatingvia llm_extracted
View patch
googlevendor investigatingvia llm_extracted
rocketchatvendor investigatingvia llm_extracted
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4Fixed in: exim
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: exim

Vendor Advisories (7)

giteallm-gitea-3978e75695dc13d5
Dec 17, 2025
redhatCVE-2016-1531Important

exim: local root privilege escalation for configurations with perl_startup

Mar 2, 2016
googlellm-google-bbdf762cdceccb9f

Security Advisory for CVE-2016-1531

esetllm-eset-d6579d3d7d720a1d
citrix_adcllm-citrix_adc-7f0b1b16646dbc92
boschllm-bosch-684e225fb100825f

Security Advisory for CVE-2016-1531

rocketchatllm-rocketchat-e8afe4a4645f6066

References

lists.opensuse.org / opensuse-security-announce/2016-03/msg00026.html
packetstormsecurity.com / files/136124/Exim-4.84-3-Local-Root-Privilege-Escalation.html
Exploit
exploit-db.com / exploits/39535
Exploit
exploit-db.com / exploits/39549
exploit-db.com / exploits/39702
debian.org / security/2016/dsa-3517
exim.org / static/doc/CVE-2016-1531.txt
Third Party AdvisoryUS Government Resource
rapid7.com / db/modules/exploit/unix/local/exim_perl_startup
securitytracker.com / id/1035512
ubuntu.com / usn/USN-2933-1