CVE-2016-1982
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe remove_chunked_transfer_coding function in filters.c in Privoxy before 3.0.24 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (invalid read and crash) via crafted chunk-encoded content.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidencePrivoxy before version 3.0.24 contains a vulnerability in the remove_chunked_transfer_coding function in filters.c. The function fails to properly handle crafted chunk-encoded content, leading to an invalid read and subsequent crash. This allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service by sending specially crafted chunked transfer-encoded HTTP content through the proxy.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 3.0.23CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if Privoxy is installedRun 'privoxy --version' or check your package manager (dpkg -l | grep privoxy or rpm -q privoxy)Affected if Privoxy is found on the system
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Determine installed Privoxy versionExecute 'privoxy --version' and note the version number displayed, or query via package managerAffected if Version returned is 3.0.23 or lower, or version cannot be determined (older installation)
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Confirm Privoxy proxy service is activeCheck if Privoxy is running as a daemon (ps aux | grep privoxy, or check systemd service status)Affected if Privoxy daemon is running and accepting proxy connections
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Verify network exposure of proxyReview Privoxy configuration file (typically /etc/privoxy/config) for Listen addresses. Check if bind address permits remote connections versus localhost onlyAffected if Privoxy is bound to a publicly accessible IP address or0.0.0.0, allowing remote clients to send requests through the proxy
You are affected if Privoxy version 3.0.23 or lower is installed and running as an accessible proxy service that can receive HTTP requests from attackers sending crafted chunked transfer-encoded content.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Privoxy to version 3.0.24 or later. As an interim measure, restrict or filter suspicious chunked transfer-encoded requests if immediate upgrading is not feasible.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,656.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-1982 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-1982 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data