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

  - The aufs module for the Linux kernel 3.x and 4.x does not properly maintain POSIX ACL xattr data, which     allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging a group-writable setgid directory. (CVE-2016-2854)

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

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 ESM host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-5343-1 advisory.

    Yiqi Sun and Kevin Wang discovered that the cgroups implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly     restrict access to the cgroups v1 release_agent feature. A local attacker could use this to gain     administrative privileges. (CVE-2022-0492)

    It was discovered that the aufs file system in the Linux kernel did not properly restrict mount     namespaces, when mounted with the non-default allow_userns option set. A local attacker could use this to     gain administrative privileges. (CVE-2016-2853)

    It was discovered that the aufs file system in the Linux kernel did not properly maintain POSIX ACL xattr     data, when mounted with the non-default allow_userns option. A local attacker could possibly use this to     gain elevated privileges. (CVE-2016-2854)

    It was discovered that the f2fs file system in the Linux kernel did not properly validate metadata in some     situations. An attacker could use this to construct a malicious f2fs image that, when mounted and operated     on, could cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2019-19449)

    It was discovered that the XFS file system implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly validate     meta data in some circumstances. An attacker could use this to construct a malicious XFS image that, when     mounted, could cause a denial of service. (CVE-2020-12655)

    Kiyin () discovered that the NFC LLCP protocol implementation in the Linux kernel contained a     reference counting error. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash).
    (CVE-2020-25670)

    Kiyin () discovered that the NFC LLCP protocol implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly     deallocate memory in certain error situations. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of     service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2020-25671, CVE-2020-25672)

    Kiyin () discovered that the NFC LLCP protocol implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly     handle error conditions in some situations, leading to an infinite loop. A local attacker could use this     to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2020-25673)

    Mathy Vanhoef discovered that the Linux kernels WiFi implementation incorrectly handled EAPOL frames     from unauthenticated senders. A physically proximate attacker could inject malicious packets to cause a     denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2020-26139)

    Mathy Vanhoef discovered that the Linux kernels WiFi implementation could reassemble mixed encrypted     and plaintext fragments. A physically proximate attacker could possibly use this issue to inject packets     or exfiltrate selected fragments. (CVE-2020-26147)

    It was discovered that the BR/EDR pin-code pairing procedure in the Linux kernel was vulnerable to an     impersonation attack. A physically proximate attacker could possibly use this to pair to a device without     knowledge of the pin-code. (CVE-2020-26555)

    It was discovered that the bluetooth subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly perform access     control. An authenticated attacker could possibly use this to expose sensitive information.
    (CVE-2020-26558, CVE-2021-0129)

    It was discovered that the FUSE user space file system implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly     handle bad inodes in some situations. A local attacker could possibly use this to cause a denial of     service. (CVE-2020-36322)

    It was discovered that the Infiniband RDMA userspace connection manager implementation in the Linux kernel     contained a race condition leading to a use-after-free vulnerability. A local attacker could use this to     cause a denial of service (system crash) or possible execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2020-36385)

    It was discovered that the DRM subsystem in the Linux kernel contained double-free vulnerabilities. A     privileged attacker could possibly use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly     execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-20292)

    It was discovered that a race condition existed in the timer implementation in the Linux kernel. A     privileged attacker could use this to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2021-20317)

    Or Cohen and Nadav Markus discovered a use-after-free vulnerability in the nfc implementation in the Linux     kernel. A privileged local attacker could use this issue to cause a denial of service (system crash) or     possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-23134)

    It was discovered that the Xen paravirtualization backend in the Linux kernel did not properly deallocate     memory in some situations. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (memory     exhaustion). (CVE-2021-28688)

    It was discovered that the RPA PCI Hotplug driver implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly     handle device name writes via sysfs, leading to a buffer overflow. A privileged attacker could use this to     cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-28972)

    It was discovered that a race condition existed in the netfilter subsystem of the Linux kernel when     replacing tables. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash).
    (CVE-2021-29650)

    It was discovered that a race condition in the kernel Bluetooth subsystem could lead to use-after-free of     slab objects. An attacker could use this issue to possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-32399)

    It was discovered that the CIPSO implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly perform reference     counting in some situations, leading to use- after-free vulnerabilities. An attacker could use this to     cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-33033)

    It was discovered that a use-after-free existed in the Bluetooth HCI driver of the Linux kernel. A local     attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code.
    (CVE-2021-33034)

    Asaf Modelevsky discovered that the Intel(R) Ethernet ixgbe driver for the Linux kernel did not properly     validate large MTU requests from Virtual Function (VF) devices. A local attacker could possibly use this     to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2021-33098)

    Norbert Slusarek discovered that the CAN broadcast manger (bcm) protocol implementation in the Linux     kernel did not properly initialize memory in some situations. A local attacker could use this to expose     sensitive information (kernel memory). (CVE-2021-34693)

     discovered that the IEEE 1394 (Firewire) nosy packet sniffer driver in the Linux kernel did not     properly perform reference counting in some situations, leading to a use-after-free vulnerability. A local     attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code.
    (CVE-2021-3483)

    It was discovered that an out-of-bounds (OOB) memory access flaw existed in the f2fs module of the Linux     kernel. A local attacker could use this issue to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2021-3506)

    It was discovered that the bluetooth subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly handle HCI device     initialization failure, leading to a double-free vulnerability. An attacker could use this to cause a     denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-3564)

    It was discovered that the bluetooth subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly handle HCI device     detach events, leading to a use-after-free vulnerability. An attacker could use this to cause a denial of     service or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-3573)

    Murray McAllister discovered that the joystick device interface in the Linux kernel did not properly     validate data passed via an ioctl(). A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system     crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code on systems with a joystick device registered. (CVE-2021-3612)

    It was discovered that the tracing subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly keep track of per-cpu     ring buffer state. A privileged attacker could use this to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2021-3679)

    It was discovered that the Virtio console implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly validate     input lengths in some situations. A local attacker could possibly use this to cause a denial of service     (system crash). (CVE-2021-38160)

    It was discovered that the KVM hypervisor implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly compute the     access permissions for shadow pages in some situations. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial     of service. (CVE-2021-38198)

    It was discovered that the MAX-3421 host USB device driver in the Linux kernel did not properly handle     device removal events. A physically proximate attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system     crash). (CVE-2021-38204)

    It was discovered that the NFC implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly handle failed connect     events leading to a NULL pointer dereference. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of     service. (CVE-2021-38208)

    It was discovered that the configfs interface for USB gadgets in the Linux kernel contained a race     condition. A local attacker could possibly use this to expose sensitive information (kernel memory).
    (CVE-2021-39648)

    It was discovered that the ext4 file system in the Linux kernel contained a race condition when writing     xattrs to an inode. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service or possibly gain     administrative privileges. (CVE-2021-40490)

    It was discovered that the 6pack network protocol driver in the Linux kernel did not properly perform     validation checks. A privileged attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or     execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-42008)

    It was discovered that the ISDN CAPI implementation in the Linux kernel contained a race condition in     certain situations that could trigger an array out-of-bounds bug. A privileged local attacker could     possibly use this to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-43389)

    It was discovered that the Phone Network protocol (PhoNet) implementation in the Linux kernel did not     properly perform reference counting in some error conditions. A local attacker could possibly use this to     cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2021-45095)

    Wenqing Liu discovered that the f2fs file system in the Linux kernel did not properly validate the last     xattr entry in an inode. An attacker could use this to construct a malicious f2fs image that, when mounted     and operated on, could cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code.
    (CVE-2021-45469)

    Amit Klein discovered that the IPv6 implementation in the Linux kernel could disclose internal state in     some situations. An attacker could possibly use this to expose sensitive information. (CVE-2021-45485)

    It was discovered that the per cpu memory allocator in the Linux kernel could report kernel pointers via     dmesg. An attacker could use this to expose sensitive information or in conjunction with another kernel     vulnerability. (CVE-2018-5995)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
248131	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2016-2854	Nessus	Misc.	8/11/2025	10/28/2025	high
159160	Ubuntu 16.04 ESM : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-5343-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	3/22/2022	8/27/2024	high

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