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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2016-0634 json

The expansion of '\h' in the prompt string in bash 4.3 allows remote authenticated users to execute arbitrary code via shell metacharacters…

published 2017-08-28 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-0669

cvss
7.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
6.0%
EPSS 6.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 93%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The expansion of '\h' in the prompt string in bash 4.3 allows remote authenticated users to execute arbitrary code via shell metacharacters placed in 'hostname' of a machine.

Patch / fix

  • bash Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.4-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-0634

  • bash Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.3-7ubuntu1.7
  • bash Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.3-14ubuntu1.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-0634

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • bash RHEL 7 4.2.46-28.el7
  • bash RHEL 6 4.1.2-48.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:1931RHSA-2017:0725

  • bash SLES 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP2-BCL, SLED 12 SP3 +7 more 4.3-83.10.1
  • bash SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 3.2-147.29.1
  • bash SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1, SLED 12 SP1 +2 more 4.2-82.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:1398-2SUSE-SU-2018:1398-1SUSE-SU-2017:0302-1SUSE-SU-2016:2872-1

  • bash Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +15 more 4.4.12-r1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2016-0634

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2016-0634 updated cvss 4.9

bash: Arbitrary code execution via malicious hostname

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 bash
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) bash 4.2.46-28.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) bash-doc 4.2.46-28.el7, bash-debuginfo 4.2.46-28.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) bash 4.2.46-28.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) bash-doc 4.2.46-28.el7, bash-debuginfo 4.2.46-28.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1931
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) bash 4.1.2-48.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) bash-doc 4.1.2-48.el6, bash-debuginfo 4.1.2-48.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) bash 4.1.2-48.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) bash-doc 4.1.2-48.el6, bash-debuginfo 4.1.2-48.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) bash 4.1.2-48.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0725
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) bash 4.2.46-28.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1931
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) bash-doc 4.1.2-48.el6, bash-debuginfo 4.1.2-48.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0725
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) bash-doc 4.2.46-28.el7, bash-debuginfo 4.2.46-28.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1931
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) bash 4.1.2-48.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0725
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) bash 4.2.46-28.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1931
show 2 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) bash-doc 4.1.2-48.el6, bash-debuginfo 4.1.2-48.el6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0725
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) bash-doc 4.2.46-28.el7, bash-debuginfo 4.2.46-28.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1931

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

6.02% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 93% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.0 AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.