What is CVE-2016-3986?

CVE-2016-3986 is a high-severity vulnerability in Avast, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2016-04-12.

How severe is CVE-2016-3986?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Avast

CVE-2016-3986

Avast allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted PE file, related to authenticode parsing.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2016-04-12 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.079 (94.5th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 95th percentile — 94.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.079 · newest: 0.079 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Avast

Weakness classification (CWE)

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

References

code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/detail
www.exploit-db.com/exploits/39530/ (Exploit, exploit)
packetstormsecurity.com/files/136090/Avast-Authenticode-Parsing-Memory-Corrupti… (Exploit)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-3986?: CVE-2016-3986 is a high-severity vulnerability in Avast, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2016-04-12.
How severe is CVE-2016-3986?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.