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Fencer Intel
low 3.3

CVE-2016-4486 json

The rtnl_fill_link_ifmap function in net/core/rtnetlink.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.5 does not initialize a certain data structure, wh…

published 2016-05-23 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-5473

cvss
3.3
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.7%
EPSS 1.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 77%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

The rtnl_fill_link_ifmap function in net/core/rtnetlink.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.5 does not initialize a certain data structure, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel stack memory by reading a Netlink message.

Patch / fix

  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.5.4-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-4486

  • linux Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.13.0-87.133
  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-24.43
  • linux-raspi2 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1012.16
  • linux-lts-wily Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.2.0-38.45~14.04.1
  • linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.19.0-61.69~14.04.1
  • linux-lts-utopic Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.16.0-73.95~14.04.1
  • linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.4.0-24.43~14.04.1
  • linux-snapdragon Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1015.18

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-4486

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

  • kernel-ec2 SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.86.1
  • kernel-pae SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 3.0.101-0.47.86.1
  • kernel-xen SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.86.1
  • kernel-syms SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.86.1
  • kernel-trace SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.86.1
  • kernel-bigsmp SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, OpenStack Cloud 5, Manager Proxy 2.1 +1 more 3.0.101-0.47.86.1
  • kernel-source SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.86.1
  • kernel-default SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.86.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:2245-1SUSE-SU-2016:2105-1SUSE-SU-2016:2074-1SUSE-SU-2016:1985-1SUSE-SU-2016:1937-1SUSE-SU-2016:1696-1

  • kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.8.13-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10128-1

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-2016-4486 updated cvss 2.1

kernel: Information leak in rtnetlink

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”

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

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. First public exploit (EDB-46006)

Exploit prediction

1.71% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 77% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-46006 Linux Kernel 4.4 - 'rtnetlink' Stack Memory Disclosure local, 2018-12-19

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 3.3 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
Technology feeds

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.