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CVE-2017-16997

26
FAUCET Score

CVE-2017-16997 is a high-severity vulnerability in the GNU C Library (glibc) versions 2.19 through 2.26, affecting various Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions. It allows local users to gain privileges by exploiting mishandling of RPATH and RUNPATH containing $ORIGIN in privileged programs, specifically when an empty RPATH/RUNPATH token is misinterpreted as the current directory. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.8, indicating a high potential for impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, with a low attack complexity requiring user interaction. Despite its severity, there is no evidence of active exploitation, no public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), and minimal community discussion or media coverage, suggesting it is not widely targeted.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
2.19CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:glibc:2.19:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.20CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:glibc:2.20:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.21CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:glibc:2.21:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.22CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:glibc:2.22:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.23CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:glibc:2.23:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

7.8HIGH

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

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
2.70%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
84.4%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0270 is in the 84th percentile among its peer group of 11,621 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 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (6)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: glibc-0:2.17-260.el7
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: compat-glibc
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: glibc
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: compat-glibc
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: glibc
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: compat-glibc

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2017-16997Moderate

glibc: Incorrect handling of RPATH in elf/dl-load.c can be used to execute code loaded from arbitrary libraries

Dec 17, 2017

References

access.redhat.com / errata/RHBA-2019:0327
Third Party Advisory
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2018:3092
Third Party Advisory
bugs.debian.org / 884615
Issue TrackingMailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
sourceware.org / bugzilla/show_bug.cgi
Issue TrackingPatchThird Party Advisory
sourceware.org / ml/libc-alpha/2017-12/msg00528.html
Issue TrackingPatchThird Party Advisory
securityfocus.com / bid/102228
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry