Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2016-6897

medium Nessus Plugin ID 253870

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.

- Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp- admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress before 4.6 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of subscribers for /dev/random read operations by leveraging a late call to the check_ajax_referer function, a related issue to CVE-2016-6896. (CVE-2016-6897)

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://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-6897

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 253870

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2016_6897.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/24/2025

Updated: 8/24/2025

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.3

Temporal Score: 3.4

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2016-6897

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.5

Temporal Score: 5.9

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:wordpress

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

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/20/2016

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2016-6897