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Fencer Intel
high 8.4

CVE-2016-7543 json

Bash before 4.4 allows local users to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges via crafted SHELLOPTS and PS4 environment variables.

published 2017-01-19 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-8396

cvss
8.4
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 47%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Bash before 4.4 allows local users to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges via crafted SHELLOPTS and PS4 environment variables.

Patch / fix

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

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-7543

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

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-7543

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

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-2016-7543 updated cvss 7.0

bash: Specially crafted SHELLOPTS+PS4 variables allows command substitution

  • 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

Exploit prediction

0.58% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 47% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 8.4 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

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.