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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2016-6197 json

fs/overlayfs/dir.c in the OverlayFS filesystem implementation in the Linux kernel before 4.6 does not properly verify the upper dentry befo…

published 2016-08-06 10 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-7130

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 43%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

fs/overlayfs/dir.c in the OverlayFS filesystem implementation in the Linux kernel before 4.6 does not properly verify the upper dentry before proceeding with unlink and rename system-call processing, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) via a rename system call that specifies a self-hardlink.

Patch / fix

  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.6.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-6197

  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-36.55
  • linux-raspi2 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1021.27
  • linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.4.0-36.55~14.04.1
  • linux-snapdragon Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1024.27

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-6197

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-rt RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7
  • kernel-rt-kvm RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7
  • kernel-rt-trace RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7
  • kernel-rt-debug-kvm RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7
  • kernel-rt-trace-kvm RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7
  • kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7
  • kernel RHEL 7 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7
  • perf RHEL 7 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2016:1875RHSA-2016:1847

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-2016-6197 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: overlayfs: missing upper dentry verification before unlink and rename

  • Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1847
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time for NFV (v. 7) kernel-rt 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7, kernel-rt-kvm 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7, kernel-rt-trace-kvm 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Realtime (v. 7) kernel-rt 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.36.1.rt56.237.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1875
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-kdump 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-327.36.1.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2016:1847
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 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

0.51% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 43% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 5.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.9 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation
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.