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Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2016-3191 json

The compile_branch function in pcre_compile.c in PCRE 8.x before 8.39 and pcre2_compile.c in PCRE2 before 10.22 mishandles patterns contain…

published 2016-03-17 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-4232

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
8.4%
EPSS 8.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 95%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The compile_branch function in pcre_compile.c in PCRE 8.x before 8.39 and pcre2_compile.c in PCRE2 before 10.22 mishandles patterns containing an (*ACCEPT) substring in conjunction with nested parentheses, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (stack-based buffer overflow) via a crafted regular expression, as demonstrated by a JavaScript RegExp object encountered by Konqueror, aka ZDI-CAN-3542.

Patch / fix

  • pcre2 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 10.21-1
  • pcre3 Debian 12 2:8.38-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-3191

  • pcre3 Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 1:8.31-2ubuntu2.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-3191

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

  • rh-mariadb100-mariadb RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 1:10.0.25-4.el6
  • rh-mariadb100-mariadb RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 1:10.0.25-4.el7
  • rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 1:10.0.25-4.el6
  • rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 1:10.0.25-4.el7
  • rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 1:10.0.25-4.el6
  • rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 1:10.0.25-4.el7
  • rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 1:10.0.25-4.el6
  • rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common RHEL 2 SOFTWARE_COLLECTIONS 1:10.0.25-4.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:1132RHSA-2016:1025

  • pcre SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12 +12 more 8.39-7.1
  • pcre SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 +10 more 8.39-5.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:3161-1SUSE-SU-2016:2971-1

  • pcre Alpine 3.4 8.38-r1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2016-3191

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-2016-3191 updated cvss 6.8

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

  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 3 pcre Red Hat Software Collections php54-php, php55-php, php54-php-gd, php55-php-gd, rh-php56-php, rh-php70-php, +102 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7_2.1
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) pcre 8.32-15.el7_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) pcre-tools 8.32-15.el7_2.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1025
  • Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el6, +2 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el7, +2 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.6) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el6, +2 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.7) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el6, +2 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.1) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el7, +2 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.2) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el7, +2 more
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el6, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el6, +2 more Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) rh-mariadb100-mariadb 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-test 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-bench 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-common 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-config 10.0.25-4.el7, rh-mariadb100-mariadb-errmsg 10.0.25-4.el7, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1132
  • Red Hat Directory Server 8 pcre Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 pcre Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 pcre, glib2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 glib2, glib2-fam, glib2-tests, virtuoso-opensource, virtuoso-opensource-utils Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 1 httpd Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Web Server 2 jbcs-httpd24, jbcs-httpd24-runtime
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Software Collections rh-mariadb101-mariadb, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-test, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-bench, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-common, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-config, rh-mariadb101-mariadb-errmsg, +3 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

Exploit prediction

8.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 95% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • bugs.exim.org https://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1791 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

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.