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Out-of-bounds ReadWeakness · CWE-125

CVE-2016-20022

HIGH · 8.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-06-27
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
89/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
In the Linux kernel before 4.8, usb_parse_endpoint in drivers/usb/core/config.c does not validate the wMaxPacketSize field of an endpoint descriptor. NOTE: This vulnerability only affects products that are no longer supported by the supplier.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-125

The code reads past the end (or before the start) of a buffer, returning memory that was never meant to be exposed. Attackers use it to leak secrets like keys or to defeat memory-protection defences. Remediation is validating indices and lengths before every read.

General guidance for the out-of-bounds read class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux kernel 4.8 or later (ideally a modern supported LTS kernel such as 5.4, 5.10, or 6.1 depending on distribution support)

  1. 1. Identify the current Linux kernel version using 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version'
  2. 2. If the version is earlier than 4.8, plan to upgrade to a supported kernel version (4.8 or later)
  3. 3. For production systems, review the kernel upgrade procedure specific to your distribution (e.g., apt-get dist-upgrade, yum update, or manual kernel package installation)
  4. 4. Apply the upgrade following your distribution's recommended process
  5. 5. Reboot the system into the new kernel
  6. 6. Verify the fix is present by checking that usb_parse_endpoint in drivers/usb/core/config.c properly validates wMaxPacketSize (or simply confirm kernel version is 4.8 or later)
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require updated drivers or kernel modules; ensure compatibility with your system configuration before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-20022 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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