Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2016-5300

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.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 4 products from canonical, from debian, from libexpat_project and 1 other, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2016, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.

Published

2016-06-16T18:59:10.547

Last Modified

2025-04-12T10:46:40.837

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.0: 7.5 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: NONE
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: COMPLETE

Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

6.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-399

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	12.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	14.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	15.10	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.04	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	8.0	Yes
Application	libexpat_project	libexpat	< 2.2.0	Yes
Operating System	google	android	4.4.4	Yes
Operating System	google	android	5.0.2	Yes
Operating System	google	android	5.1.1	Yes
Operating System	google	android	6.0	Yes
Operating System	google	android	6.0.1	Yes

References

http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3597 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/06/04/4 Mailing List ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/06/04/5 Mailing List ([email protected])
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpujul2018-4258247.html Patch, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjul2016-3090568.html Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/91159 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry ([email protected])
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3010-1 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10365 ([email protected])
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E ([email protected])
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E ([email protected])
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-21 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-11-01.html Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2016-20 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3597 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/06/04/4 Mailing List (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/06/04/5 Mailing List (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpujul2018-4258247.html Patch, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjul2016-3090568.html Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/91159 Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3010-1 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10365 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r58af02e294bd07f487e2c64ffc0a29b837db5600e33b6e698b9d696b%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf4c02775860db415b4955778a131c2795223f61cb8c6a450893651e4%40%3Cissues.bookkeeper.apache.org%3E (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-21 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-11-01.html Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2016-20 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For canonical's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.