Glibc
CVE-2017-16997
HIGH
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A08:2025 - Software or Data Integrity Failures
ASVS 5.0
V13 - Configuration Search path verification
|
| Impact | CVSS score of 7.8 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: local attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required. EPSS exploitation probability: 1.13%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | Successful exploitation could compromise the high-severity affected system. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
elf/dl-load.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) 2.19 through 2.26 mishandles RPATH and RUNPATH containing $ORIGIN for a privileged (setuid or AT_SECURE) program, which allows local users to. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.
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Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-426. elf/dl-load.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) 2.19 through 2.26 mishandles RPATH and RUNPATH containing $ORIGIN for a privileged (setuid or AT_SECURE) program, which allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse library in the current working directory, related to the fillin_rpath and decompose_rpath functions. This is associated with misinterpretion of an empty RPATH/RUNPATH token as the "./" directory. NOTE: this configuration of RPATH/RUNPATH for a privileged program is apparently very uncommon; most likely, no such program is shipped with any common Linux distribution. Affected products include: Gnu Glibc, Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Redhat Enterprise Linux Server, Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation. Version information: through 2.26.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionCVE.org
elf/dl-load.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) 2.19 through 2.26 mishandles RPATH and RUNPATH containing $ORIGIN for a privileged (setuid or AT_SECURE) program, which allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse library in the current working directory, related to the fillin_rpath and decompose_rpath functions. This is associated with misinterpretion of an empty RPATH/RUNPATH token as the "./" directory. NOTE: this configuration of RPATH/RUNPATH for a privileged program is apparently very uncommon; most likely, no such program is shipped with any common Linux distribution.
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
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
Local privilege escalation in the GNU C Library (glibc) dynamic loader ld.so allows unprivileged local users on affected
Heap-based buffer overflow in the __nss_hostname_digits_dots function in glibc 2.2, and other 2.x versions before 2.18,
The iconv() function in the GNU C Library versions 2.39 and older may overflow the output buffer passed to it by up to 4
Multiple stack-based buffer overflows in the (1) send_dg and (2) send_vc functions in the libresolv library in the GNU C
Local privilege escalation in GNU glibc 2.36 and newer arises from a heap-based buffer overflow in __vsyslog_internal, r
Off-by-one error in the __gconv_translit_find function in gconv_trans.c in GNU C Library (aka glibc) allows context-depe
Integer overflow in string/strcoll_l.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) 2.17 and earlier allows context-depende
In glibc 2.26 and earlier there is confusion in the usage of getcwd() by realpath() which can be used to write before th
In the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) through 2.29, proceed_next_node in posix/regexec.c has a heap-based buffer ove
GNU Libc current is affected by: Mitigation bypass. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely e
The mq_notify function in the GNU C Library (aka glibc) versions 2.32 and 2.33 has a use-after-free. Rated critical seve
sprintf in the GNU C Library (glibc) 2.37 has a buffer overflow (out-of-bounds write) in some situations with a correct
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB