Pidgin
CVE-2016-2365
MEDIUM
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Null pointer safety, defensive checks
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 5.9 (MEDIUM). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, high complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 3.25%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could crash the application by dereferencing a null pointer by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
A denial of service vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol in Pidgin. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. This NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability could allow attackers to crash the application by dereferencing a null pointer.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Check pointers before dereferencing. Use static analysis tools to detect null pointer paths.
Affects your stack
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Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476), which allows attackers to crash the application by dereferencing a null pointer. A denial of service vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol in Pidgin. Specially crafted MXIT data sent via the server could potentially result in a null pointer dereference. A malicious server or an attacker who intercepts the network traffic can send invalid data to trigger this vulnerability and cause a crash. Affected products include: Pidgin, Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionCVE.org
A denial of service vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol in Pidgin. Specially crafted MXIT data sent via the server could potentially result in a null pointer dereference. A malicious server or an attacker who intercepts the network traffic can send invalid data to trigger this vulnerability and cause a crash.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
A null pointer dereference occurs when a program attempts to access memory through a pointer that has been set to NULL (address 0x0).
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
The SIMPLE protocol functionality in Pidgin before 2.10.8 allows remote attackers to have an unspecified impact via a ne
Buffer overflow in markup.c in the MXit protocol plugin in libpurple in Pidgin before 2.10.5 allows remote attackers to
Pidgin 2.13.0 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows local attackers to crash the application by providi
gtkutils.c in Pidgin before 2.10.8 on Windows allows user-assisted remote attackers to execute arbitrary programs via a
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol in Pidgin. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), t
Multiple memory corruption vulnerabilities exist in the handling of the MXIT protocol in Pidgin. Rated high severity (CV
msg.c in the MSN protocol plugin in libpurple in Pidgin before 2.10.4 does not properly handle crafted characters, which
The Mxit protocol uses weak encryption when encrypting user passwords, which might allow attackers to (1) decrypt hashed
An out-of-bounds write vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol in Pidgin. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol Pidgin. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol in Pidgin. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), t
An exploitable memory corruption vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol in Pidgin. Rated high severit
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB