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CVE-2016-0727

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS,...

7.8 HighPublic exploitFix available

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, on Ubuntu Wily, and before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the ntp account to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain privileges via vectors involving statistics directory cleanup.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
Low
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

1.25%Down 0.9 points since Feb 4, 2022
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 7.8

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, on Ubuntu Wily, and before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the ntp account to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain privileges via vectors involving statistics directory cleanup.

Record
CVE-2016-0727
CVSS 3.0
7.8 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0
7.2 HighAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Weakness
CWE-264
Updated
2026-11-02
CVE List No score

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, on Ubuntu Wily, and before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the ntp account to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain privileges via vectors involving statistics directory cleanup.

Record
CVE-2016-0727
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2016-0756 No score

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, on Ubuntu Wily, and before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the ntp account to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain privileges via vectors involving statistics directory cleanup.

Record
EUVD-2016-0756
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-c7qx-m9c7-8wm7 7.8

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS,...

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, on Ubuntu Wily, and before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the ntp account to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain privileges via vectors involving statistics directory cleanup.

Record
GHSA-c7qx-m9c7-8wm7
CVSS 3.0
7.8 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 7.8

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, on Ubuntu Wily, and before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the ntp account to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain privileges via vectors involving statistics directory cleanup.

Record
CVE-2016-0727
CVSS 3.0
7.8 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2016-0727 7.8

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, on Ubuntu Wily, and before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the ntp account to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain privileges via vectors involving statistics directory cleanup.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2016-0727
CVSS 3.0
7.8 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2016-0727 7.8

The crontab script in the ntp package before 1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.11 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, on Ubuntu Wily, and before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS allows local users with access to the ntp account to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain privileges via vectors involving statistics directory cleanup.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2016-0727
CVSS 3.0
7.8 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUSN-3096-1 No score

ntp vulnerabilities

Aanchal Malhotra discovered that NTP incorrectly handled authenticated broadcast mode. A remote attacker could use this issue to perform a replay attack. (CVE-2015-7973)

Matt Street discovered that NTP incorrectly verified peer associations of symmetric keys. A remote attacker could use this issue to perform an impersonation attack. (CVE-2015-7974)

Jonathan Gardner discovered that the NTP ntpq utility incorrectly handled memory. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause ntpq to crash, resulting in a denial of service. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. (CVE-2015-7975)

Jonathan Gardner discovered that the NTP ntpq utility incorrectly handled dangerous characters in filenames. An attacker could possibly use this issue to overwrite arbitrary files. (CVE-2015-7976)

Stephen Gray discovered that NTP incorrectly handled large restrict lists. An attacker could use this issue to cause NTP to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2015-7977, CVE-2015-7978)

Aanchal Malhotra discovered that NTP incorrectly handled authenticated broadcast mode. A remote attacker could use this issue to cause NTP to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2015-7979)

Jonathan Gardner discovered that NTP incorrectly handled origin timestamp checks. A remote attacker could use this issue to spoof peer servers. (CVE-2015-8138)

Jonathan Gardner discovered that the NTP ntpq utility did not properly handle certain incorrect values. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause ntpq to hang, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2015-8158)

It was discovered that the NTP cronjob incorrectly cleaned up the statistics directory. A local attacker could possibly use this to escalate privileges. (CVE-2016-0727)

Stephen Gray and Matthew Van Gundy discovered that NTP incorrectly validated crypto-NAKs. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to prevent clients from synchronizing. (CVE-2016-1547)

Miroslav Lichvar and Jonathan Gardner discovered that NTP incorrectly handled switching to interleaved symmetric mode. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to prevent clients from synchronizing. (CVE-2016-1548)

Matthew Van Gundy, Stephen Gray and Loganaden Velvindron discovered that NTP incorrectly handled message authentication. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to recover the message digest key. (CVE-2016-1550)

Yihan Lian discovered that NTP incorrectly handled duplicate IPs on unconfig directives. An authenticated remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause NTP to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2016-2516)

Yihan Lian discovered that NTP incorrectly handled certail peer associations. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause NTP to crash, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2016-2518)

Jakub Prokes discovered that NTP incorrectly handled certain spoofed packets. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2016-4954)

Miroslav Lichvar discovered that NTP incorrectly handled certain packets when autokey is enabled. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2016-4955)

Miroslav Lichvar discovered that NTP incorrectly handled certain spoofed broadcast packets. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2016-4956)

In the default installation, attackers would be isolated by the NTP AppArmor profile.

Record
USN-3096-1
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
ntp
Debian:11
before 1:4.2.8p9+dfsg-2
1:4.2.8p9+dfsg-2
ntp
Ubuntu:14.04:LTS
before 1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10, plus listed versions
1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu21:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.11:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.21:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.31:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.51:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.61:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.71:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.8
1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.10
ntp
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS
before 1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3, plus listed versions
1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu81:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu8.11:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu91:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu11:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu2
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1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu31:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu41:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu51:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.11:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.2
1:4.2.8p4+dfsg-3ubuntu5.3

Public exploits

Links only. Every CVE stores no exploit code.

Public exploits
SourceLinkDate
Exploit-DBNTP - Local Privilege Escalation2016-01-21

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliasesEUVD
first indexedCVE List, Exploit-DB, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2016-0727 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.8) in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published January 22, 2016. Public exploit code exists. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.25%, the 69th percentile. Fixed in ntp 1:4.2.8p9+dfsg-2.

References

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