What is CVE-2016-1234?

CVE-2016-1234 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Glibc, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2016-06-01.

How severe is CVE-2016-1234?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2016-1234 known to be exploited?

2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Buffer overflow in GNU Glibc

CVE-2016-1234

Stack-based buffer overflow in the glob implementation in GNU C Library (aka glibc) before 2.24, when GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC is used, allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a long name.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2016-06-01 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.054 (92.4th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 92nd percentile — 92.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.052 · newest: 0.054 · change: +0.002

Affected products

GNU Glibc
Fedoraproject Fedora — versions 23
openSUSE Leap — versions 42.1
openSUSE — versions 13.2

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-119 — Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-May/184626.html (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-07/msg00039.html (vendor-advisory, Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/03/07/16 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201702-11 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/84204 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-06/msg00030.html (vendor-advisory, Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi
lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a4508… (mailing-list)
lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698… (mailing-list)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-1234?: CVE-2016-1234 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Glibc, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2016-06-01.
How severe is CVE-2016-1234?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2016-1234 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.