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CVE-2016-3191

35
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-3191 is a critical vulnerability affecting PCRE 8.x before 8.39 and PCRE2 before 10.22, specifically within the compile_branch function. It allows remote attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution or a denial of service via a stack-based buffer overflow by crafting a malicious regular expression containing an (*ACCEPT) substring and nested parentheses. This vulnerability carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical), indicating a high-impact, easily exploitable threat with no user interaction required. Despite its severity, there is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage surrounding this CVE.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
8.00CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:pcre:pcre:8.00:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.01CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:pcre:pcre:8.01:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.02CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:pcre:pcre:8.02:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.10CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:pcre:pcre:8.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.11CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:pcre:pcre:8.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

9.8CRITICAL

CVSS:3.0/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
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
8.43%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
94.4%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-25
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0843 is in the 90th percentile among its peer group of 36,833 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

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (12)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: pcre-0:8.32-15.el7_2.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: rh-mariadb100-mariadb-1:10.0.25-4.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 EUSFixed in: rh-mariadb100-mariadb-1:10.0.25-4.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7 EUSFixed in: rh-mariadb100-mariadb-1:10.0.25-4.el6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: rh-mariadb100-mariadb-1:10.0.25-4.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 EUSFixed in: rh-mariadb100-mariadb-1:10.0.25-4.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 EUSFixed in: rh-mariadb100-mariadb-1:10.0.25-4.el7
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 3Fixed in: pcre
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software CollectionsFixed in: php54-php
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software CollectionsFixed in: php55-php
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software CollectionsFixed in: rh-php56-php
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Software CollectionsFixed in: rh-php70-php

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2016-3191Important

pcre: workspace overflow for (*ACCEPT) with deeply nested parentheses (8.39/13, 10.22/12)

Feb 9, 2016

References

rhn.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2016-1025.html
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2016:1132
bto.bluecoat.com / security-advisory/sa128
bugs.debian.org / 815920
bugs.debian.org / 815921
bugs.exim.org / show_bug.cgi
Exploit
bugzilla.redhat.com / show_bug.cgi
tenable.com / security/tns-2016-18
vcs.pcre.org / pcre2
vcs.pcre.org / pcre
www-01.ibm.com / support/docview.wss
oracle.com / technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinapr2016-2952096.html
securityfocus.com / bid/84810