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CVE-2016-3227

45
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-3227 is a critical use-after-free vulnerability in the DNS Server component of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2. This flaw allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by sending crafted requests to the affected DNS server. With a CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical), it presents a high-impact threat, requiring no user interaction or authentication for exploitation. While no public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB) is readily available and it's not listed in CISA's KEV catalog, the vulnerability has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage, indicating its perceived importance.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
Range not provided by sourceCPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2012:-:gold:*:*:*:*:*:*
r2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2012:r2:*:*:*:datacenter:*:*:*
r2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2012:r2:*:*:*:essentials:*:*:*
r2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2012:r2:*:*:*:standard:*:*:*

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
25.46%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
97.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.2546 is in the 95th 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

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 (4)

microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows Server 2012
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows Server 2012 (Server Core installation)
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows Server 2012 R2
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server Core installation)
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

microsoft2016-Jun/CVE-2016-3227Critical

Windows DNS Server Use After Free Vulnerability

Jun 14, 2016

References

docs.microsoft.com / en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2016/ms16-071
securitytracker.com / id/1036095