What is CVE-2016-2148?

CVE-2016-2148 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Busybox, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2017-02-09.

How severe is CVE-2016-2148?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2016-2148 known to be exploited?

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

Buffer overflow in Busybox

CVE-2016-2148

Heap-based buffer overflow in the DHCP client (udhcpc) in BusyBox before 1.25.0 allows remote attackers to have unspecified impact via vectors involving OPTION_6RD parsing.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2017-02-09 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.271 (98.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-20.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 98th percentile — 98.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.271 · newest: 0.271 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Busybox
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 14.04, 16.04, 18.04
Debian Linux — versions 8.0, 9.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

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

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

git.busybox.net/busybox/commit/ (Patch, Vendor Advisory)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/03/11/16 (mailing-list, Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201612-04 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/07/msg00037.html (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
busybox.net/news.html (Vendor Advisory)
usn.ubuntu.com/3935-1/ (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Jun/18 (mailing-list, Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Jun/14 (mailing-list, Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
packetstormsecurity.com/files/153278/WAGO-852-Industrial-Managed-Switch-Series-… (Exploit, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Sep/7 (mailing-list, Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-2148?: CVE-2016-2148 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Busybox, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2017-02-09.
How severe is CVE-2016-2148?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2016-2148 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.