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CVE-2016-2856

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2...

8.4 HighPublic exploitFix available

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2.15-0ubuntu10.14 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; and the glibc package before 2.21-0ubuntu4.2 on Ubuntu 15.10 and before 2.23-0ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 16.10 lacks a namespace check associated with file-descriptor passing, which allows local users to capture keystrokes and spoof data, and possibly gain privileges, via pts read and write operations, related to debian/sysdeps/linux.mk. NOTE: this is not considered a vulnerability in the upstream GNU C Library because the upstream documentation has a clear security recommendation against the --enable-pt_chown option.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

1.03%Down 3.0 points since Feb 4, 2022
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 8.4

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2.15-0ubuntu10.14 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; and the glibc package before 2.21-0ubuntu4.2 on Ubuntu 15.10 and before 2.23-0ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 16.10 lacks a namespace check associated with file-descriptor passing, which allows local users to capture keystrokes and spoof data, and possibly gain privileges, via pts read and write operations, related to debian/sysdeps/linux.mk. NOTE: this is not considered a vulnerability in the upstream GNU C Library because the upstream documentation has a clear security recommendation against the --enable-pt_chown option.

Record
CVE-2016-2856
CVSS 3.0
8.4 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/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

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2.15-0ubuntu10.14 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; and the glibc package before 2.21-0ubuntu4.2 on Ubuntu 15.10 and before 2.23-0ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 16.10 lacks a namespace check associated with file-descriptor passing, which allows local users to capture keystrokes and spoof data, and possibly gain privileges, via pts read and write operations, related to debian/sysdeps/linux.mk. NOTE: this is not considered a vulnerability in the upstream GNU C Library because the upstream documentation has a clear security recommendation against the --enable-pt_chown option.

Record
CVE-2016-2856
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2016-3929 No score

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2.15-0ubuntu10.14 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; and the glibc package before 2.21-0ubuntu4.2 on Ubuntu 15.10 and before 2.23-0ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 16.10 lacks a namespace check associated with file-descriptor passing, which allows local users to capture keystrokes and spoof data, and possibly gain privileges, via pts read and write operations, related to debian/sysdeps/linux.mk. NOTE: this is not considered a vulnerability in the upstream GNU C Library because the upstream documentation has a clear security recommendation against the --enable-pt_chown option.

Record
EUVD-2016-3929
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-2wf2-64hh-9h2m 8.4

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2...

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2.15-0ubuntu10.14 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; and the glibc package before 2.21-0ubuntu4.2 on Ubuntu 15.10 and before 2.23-0ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 16.10 lacks a namespace check associated with file-descriptor passing, which allows local users to capture keystrokes and spoof data, and possibly gain privileges, via pts read and write operations, related to debian/sysdeps/linux.mk. NOTE: this is not considered a vulnerability in the upstream GNU C Library because the upstream documentation has a clear security recommendation against the --enable-pt_chown option.

Record
GHSA-2wf2-64hh-9h2m
CVSS 3.0
8.4 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 8.4

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2.15-0ubuntu10.14 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; and the glibc package before 2.21-0ubuntu4.2 on Ubuntu 15.10 and before 2.23-0ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 16.10 lacks a namespace check associated with file-descriptor passing, which allows local users to capture keystrokes and spoof data, and possibly gain privileges, via pts read and write operations, related to debian/sysdeps/linux.mk. NOTE: this is not considered a vulnerability in the upstream GNU C Library because the upstream documentation has a clear security recommendation against the --enable-pt_chown option.

Record
CVE-2016-2856
CVSS 3.0
8.4 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2016-2856 8.4

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2.15-0ubuntu10.14 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; and the glibc package before 2.21-0ubuntu4.2 on Ubuntu 15.10 and before 2.23-0ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 16.10 lacks a namespace check associated with file-descriptor passing, which allows local users to capture keystrokes and spoof data, and possibly gain privileges, via pts read and write operations, related to debian/sysdeps/linux.mk. NOTE: this is not considered a vulnerability in the upstream GNU C Library because the upstream documentation has a clear security recommendation against the --enable-pt_chown option.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2016-2856
CVSS 3.0
8.4 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2016-2856 8.4

pt_chown in the glibc package before 2.19-18+deb8u4 on Debian jessie; the elibc package before 2.15-0ubuntu10.14 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS; and the glibc package before 2.21-0ubuntu4.2 on Ubuntu 15.10 and before 2.23-0ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 16.10 lacks a namespace check associated with file-descriptor passing, which allows local users to capture keystrokes and spoof data, and possibly gain privileges, via pts read and write operations, related to debian/sysdeps/linux.mk. NOTE: this is not considered a vulnerability in the upstream GNU C Library because the upstream documentation has a clear security recommendation against the --enable-pt_chown option.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2016-2856
CVSS 3.0
8.4 HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUSN-2985-1 No score

eglibc, glibc vulnerabilities

Martin Carpenter discovered that pt_chown in the GNU C Library did not properly check permissions for tty files. A local attacker could use this to gain administrative privileges or expose sensitive information. (CVE-2013-2207, CVE-2016-2856)

Robin Hack discovered that the Name Service Switch (NSS) implementation in the GNU C Library did not properly manage its file descriptors. An attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (infinite loop). (CVE-2014-8121)

Joseph Myers discovered that the GNU C Library did not properly handle long arguments to functions returning a representation of Not a Number (NaN). An attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion leading to an application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2014-9761)

Arjun Shankar discovered that in certain situations the nss_dns code in the GNU C Library did not properly account buffer sizes when passed an unaligned buffer. An attacker could use this to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2015-1781)

Sumit Bose and Lukas Slebodnik discovered that the Name Service Switch (NSS) implementation in the GNU C Library did not handle long lines in the files databases correctly. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2015-5277)

Adam Nielsen discovered that the strftime function in the GNU C Library did not properly handle out-of-range argument data. An attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly expose sensitive information. (CVE-2015-8776)

Hector Marco and Ismael Ripoll discovered that the GNU C Library allowed the pointer-guarding protection mechanism to be disabled by honoring the LD_POINTER_GUARD environment variable across privilege boundaries. A local attacker could use this to exploit an existing vulnerability more easily. (CVE-2015-8777)

Szabolcs Nagy discovered that the hcreate functions in the GNU C Library did not properly check its size argument, leading to an integer overflow. An attacker could use to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2015-8778)

Maksymilian Arciemowicz discovered a stack-based buffer overflow in the catopen function in the GNU C Library when handling long catalog names. An attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2015-8779)

Florian Weimer discovered that the getnetbyname implementation in the GNU C Library did not properly handle long names passed as arguments. An attacker could use to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion leading to an application crash). (CVE-2016-3075)

Record
USN-2985-1
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
glibc
Debian:12
before 2.21-1
2.21-1
glibc
Debian:13
before 2.21-1
2.21-1
glibc
Debian:14
before 2.21-1
2.21-1
eglibc
Ubuntu:14.04:LTS
before 2.19-0ubuntu6.8, plus listed versions
2.17-93ubuntu42.18-0ubuntu12.18-0ubuntu22.18-0ubuntu42.18-0ubuntu5
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2.18-0ubuntu62.18-0ubuntu72.19-0ubuntu22.19-0ubuntu32.19-0ubuntu42.19-0ubuntu52.19-0ubuntu62.19-0ubuntu6.12.19-0ubuntu6.32.19-0ubuntu6.42.19-0ubuntu6.52.19-0ubuntu6.62.19-0ubuntu6.7
2.19-0ubuntu6.8

Public exploits

Links only. Every CVE stores no exploit code.

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-2016-2856 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.4) in Debian Linux, published March 13, 2016. Public exploit code exists. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.03%, the 63rd percentile. Fixed in glibc 2.21-1.

References

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