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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2016-9685 json

Multiple memory leaks in error paths in fs/xfs/xfs_attr_list.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.1 allow local users to cause a denial of serv…

published 2016-12-28 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-10486

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 33%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Multiple memory leaks in error paths in fs/xfs/xfs_attr_list.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.1 allow local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via crafted XFS filesystem operations.

Patch / fix

  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.5.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-9685

  • linux Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.13.0-86.130
  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-22.39
  • linux-raspi2 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1010.12
  • linux-lts-vivid Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.19.0-59.65~14.04.1
  • linux-lts-xenial Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.4.0-22.39~14.04.1
  • linux-snapdragon Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1013.14

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-9685

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 enterprise mrg 2 1:3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt
  • kernel-rt-trace enterprise mrg 2 1:3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt
  • kernel-rt-vanilla enterprise mrg 2 1:3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt
  • kernel-rt-firmware enterprise mrg 2 1:3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt
  • kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 enterprise mrg 2 1:3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt
  • kernel-rt RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
  • kernel-rt-kvm RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
  • kernel-rt-trace RHEL 7 EXTRAS_RT 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:2669RHSA-2017:2077RHSA-2017:1842

  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-68.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-68.1
  • kernel-rt_trace SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-68.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 11 SP4 3.0.101.rt130-68.1
  • kernel-ec2 SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.96.1
  • kernel-pae SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 3.0.101-0.47.96.1
  • kernel-xen SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.96.1
  • kernel-syms SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 3.0.101-0.47.96.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:1102-1SUSE-SU-2017:0494-1SUSE-SU-2017:0437-1SUSE-SU-2017:0333-1

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-2016-9685 updated cvss 3.8

kernel: Memory leaks in xfs_attr_list.c error paths

  • 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 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 Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel 3.10.0-693.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-693.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel 3.10.0-693.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-693.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1842
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time (v. 7) kernel-rt 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time for NFV (v. 7) kernel-rt 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-kvm 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-trace-kvm 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.rt56.617.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:2077
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel 3.10.0-693.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-kdump 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-693.el7, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel 3.10.0-693.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-693.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-693.el7, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1842
  • Red Hat MRG Realtime for RHEL 6 Server v.2 kernel-rt 3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt, kernel-rt-vanilla 3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt, kernel-rt-firmware 3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-693.2.1.rt56.585.el6rt
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:2669
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) kernel-headers 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) kernel-headers 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) kernel-headers 3.10.0-693.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) kernel-headers 3.10.0-693.el7
    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

0.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 33% 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-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
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.