Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2016-5300

high Nessus Plugin ID 219628

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- The XML parser in Expat does not use sufficient entropy for hash initialization, which allows context- dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via crafted identifiers in an XML document. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2012-0876. (CVE-2016-5300)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 219628

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2016_5300.nasl

Version: 1.6

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/4/2025

Updated: 10/14/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.6

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2016-5300

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:expat-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:expat, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:xmlrpc-c, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:expat-static, cpe:/o:centos:centos:7, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:sitecopy, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:expat, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.10, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.04, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:expat-static, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:expat-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:xmlrpc-c, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:vnc4, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:libxmltok, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:xmlrpc-c

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/7/2016

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2016-5300

Detections

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