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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2016-4463 in the critical feed json

Stack-based buffer overflow in Apache Xerces-C++ before 3.1.4 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service via a deeply…

published 2016-07-08 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-5452

cvss
7.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
14.2%
EPSS 14.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Stack-based buffer overflow in Apache Xerces-C++ before 3.1.4 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service via a deeply nested DTD.

Patch / fix

  • xerces-c Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.1.3+debian-2.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-4463

  • xerces-c Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.1.1-5.1+deb8u3build0.14.04.1
  • xerces-c Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 3.1.3+debian-1ubuntu0.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-4463

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

  • xerces-c RHEL 7 3.1.1-9.el7
  • xerces-c RHEL 7.4 EUS 3.1.1-8.el7_4.1
  • xerces-c RHEL 7.5 EUS 3.1.1-8.el7_5.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2018:3514RHSA-2018:3506RHSA-2018:3335

  • Xerces-c SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 2.8.0-29.17.5.1
  • xerces-c SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1, SLED 12 SP1 +1 more 3.1.1-12.3

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:3277-1SUSE-SU-2016:2154-1

  • xerces-c openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.1.4-1.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10039-1

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-2016-4463 updated cvss 4.7

xerces-c: Stack overflow when parsing deeply nested DTD

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 xerces-c
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 xerces-c Red Hat Enterprise MRG 3 xerces-c Red Hat OpenShift Enterprise 2 xerces-c
    under investigation
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) xerces-c 3.1.1-9.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) xerces-c 3.1.1-9.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3335
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional EUS (v. 7.4) xerces-c 3.1.1-8.el7_4.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3514
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional EUS (v. 7.5) xerces-c 3.1.1-8.el7_5.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3506
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) xerces-c 3.1.1-9.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) xerces-c-doc 3.1.1-9.el7, xerces-c-devel 3.1.1-9.el7, xerces-c-debuginfo 3.1.1-9.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) xerces-c 3.1.1-9.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3335
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.4) xerces-c 3.1.1-8.el7_4.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3514
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 7.5) xerces-c 3.1.1-8.el7_5.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3506
show 4 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) xerces-c-doc 3.1.1-9.el7, xerces-c-devel 3.1.1-9.el7, xerces-c-debuginfo 3.1.1-9.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3335
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional EUS (v. 7.4) xerces-c-doc 3.1.1-8.el7_4.1, xerces-c-devel 3.1.1-8.el7_4.1, xerces-c-debuginfo 3.1.1-8.el7_4.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3514
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional EUS (v. 7.5) xerces-c-doc 3.1.1-8.el7_5.1, xerces-c-devel 3.1.1-8.el7_5.1, xerces-c-debuginfo 3.1.1-8.el7_5.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3506
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) xerces-c 3.1.1-9.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) xerces-c-doc 3.1.1-9.el7, xerces-c-devel 3.1.1-9.el7, xerces-c-debuginfo 3.1.1-9.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3335

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

14.25% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% 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:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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.