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CVE-2016-2338

33
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-2338 is a critical heap overflow vulnerability in the Psych::Emitter start_document function of Ruby, affecting Debian Linux and Ruby itself. This flaw allows an attacker to cause a heap overflow by manipulating the tags array, leading to arbitrary code execution. With a CVSS score of 9.8, it is easily exploitable over the network without user interaction, resulting in complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Despite its high severity and FAUCET Risk Score of 91/100, there is currently no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
2.2.2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.2.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.3.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:2.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

9.8CRITICAL

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

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
4.64%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
90.8%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0464 is in the 84th percentile among its peer group of 36,862 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.3 Mastodon, and 2.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2016-2338Moderate

ruby: heap buffer overflow in the Psych::Emitter start_document function

Sep 29, 2022

References

lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2020/03/msg00032.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
security.netapp.com / advisory/ntap-20221228-0005
Third Party Advisory
talosintelligence.com / reports/TALOS-2016-0032
ExploitThird Party Advisory