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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2016-15059

critical Nessus Plugin ID 349115

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.

 - Net::IDN::Punycode versions before 2.301 for Perl allow a heap buffer overflow via unchecked writes past the output buffer in encode_punycode. The XS backend builds the encoded label in the string buffer of the scalar it returns, sized from the input length. The loop that emits the digits of each code point checks for room before every write, but the write of the last digit of each round and the write of the terminating NUL do not, so an input whose encoded form fills the buffer writes past its end. Only the XS backend is affected. Encoding an attacker-supplied string corrupts the heap. (CVE-2016-15059)

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-2016-15059

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 349115

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2016_15059.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 9/23/2026

Updated: 9/23/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.9

Percentile: 58.29

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.4

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2016-15059

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 9

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libnet-idn-encode-perl

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 9/22/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2016-15059