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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2016-7914

medium Nessus Plugin ID 219810

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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 assoc_array_insert_into_terminal_node function in lib/assoc_array.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5.3 does not check whether a slot is a leaf, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel memory or cause a denial of service (invalid pointer dereference and out-of-bounds read) via an application that uses associative-array data structures, as demonstrated by the keyutils test suite.
 (CVE-2016-7914)

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

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2016-7914

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-7914

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 219810

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2016_7914.nasl

Version: 1.4

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/4/2025

Updated: 9/3/2025

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.1

Temporal Score: 5.3

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2016-7914

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 4.8

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-debug-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-doc, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-trace-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-debug-kvm, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-trace-kvm, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gkeop, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-raspi2, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-debug-devel, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fde, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-debug-kvm, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-doc, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-trace-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-trace-kvm, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-6.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fde-5.15, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-intel-iot-realtime, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-raspi-realtime, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-6.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-6.11, cpe:/o:centos:centos:7, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-debug, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-trace, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-rt-kvm, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-debug, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-devel, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-kvm, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-rt-trace, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-edge, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-realtime

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: 11/3/2016

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2016-7914