What is CVE-2016-4971?

CVE-2016-4971 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Wget. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2016-06-30.

How severe is CVE-2016-4971?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2016-4971 known to be exploited?

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

Vulnerability in GNU Wget

CVE-2016-4971

GNU wget before 1.18 allows remote servers to write to arbitrary files by redirecting a request from HTTP to a crafted FTP resource.

Published 2016-06-30 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.461 (98.8th percentile), scored 2026-11-01.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 99th percentile — 98.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.461 · newest: 0.461 · change: 0.000

Affected products

GNU Wget
Oracle Solaris — versions 10, 11.3
Paloaltonetworks Pan-Os
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 12.04, 14.04, 15.10

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2016-06/msg00004.html (Vendor Advisory, mailing-list, Patch, Mailing List)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201610-11 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-08/msg00043.html (vendor-advisory, Broken Link)
www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40064/ (Exploit, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, exploit)
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Exploit, Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjul2016-3090568.html (Third Party Advisory)
git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/wget.git/commit/ (Patch, Vendor Advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-2587.html (vendor-advisory, Broken Link)
www.securitytracker.com/id/1036133 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3012-1 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-4971?: CVE-2016-4971 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Wget. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2016-06-30.
How severe is CVE-2016-4971?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2016-4971 known to be exploited?: 13 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.