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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 2 Jun 2023.
LinuxOperating system · Oracle

CVE-2016-3427

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2016-04-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.1.22 / 2.2.18 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Remotely reachable 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
Unspecified vulnerability in Oracle Java SE 6u113, 7u99, and 8u77; Java SE Embedded 8u77; and JRockit R28.3.9 allows remote attackers to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability via vectors related to JMX.

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 confidence

Critical remote code execution vulnerability in Oracle Java's JMX (Java Management Extensions) component. Allows remote unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code via specially crafted JMX connections, impacting confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

MitigationUpgrade to patched Java versions (post-8u77 for Java 8, or later supported versions). If JMX is not required, disable it or restrict network access to trusted IPs only.

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
LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 5= 6= 7
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 12.04= 14.04= 15.10= 16.04
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0
CassandraApplication
Affected:>= 2.1.0, < 2.1.22>= 2.2.0, < 2.2.18>= 3.0.0, < 3.0.22>= 3.11.0, < 3.11.8= 4.0.0
SatelliteApplication
Affected:= 5.6= 5.7
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
Affected:= 6.7= 7.2= 7.3= 7.4= 7.5= 7.6= 7.7
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0= 7.0

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

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

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Java installation and version
    Run 'java -version' to see the installed JRE/JDK version. Also check 'which java' to locate the binary and examine the full version string (e.g., 1.8.0_77, 1.7.0_99, 1.6.0_113).
    Affected if The version matches 6u113 or earlier, 7u99 or earlier, or 8u77 or earlier (or displays these exact versions).
  2. Determine if JMX remote management is enabled
    Examine Java startup scripts or process arguments for JMX-related flags such as '-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote', '-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=...', '-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false', or '-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false'. Also check the JMX configuration files in the JRE/lib/management directory.
    Affected if JMX remote management is enabled with the vulnerability-present configuration (particularly with SSL disabled or authentication disabled).
  3. Check for listening JMX ports
    Use 'netstat -tlnp' or 'ss -tlnp' to inspect listening network ports. Look for ports 1099 (standard JMX RMI) or 7199 (Cassandra JMX).
    Affected if Ports 1099 or 7199 are listening and accessible over the network (not bound to localhost only).
  4. For Apache Cassandra environments, verify JMX configuration
    If Apache Cassandra is installed, check the cassandra-env.sh configuration file for JMX settings. Also check if the process is running with JMX options exposed: 'ps aux | grep cassandra' and review any JMX-related JVM arguments.
    Affected if Cassandra version falls within the affected ranges (2.1.0-2.1.21, 2.2.0-2.2.17, 3.0.0-3.0.21, 3.11.0-3.11.7, or 4.0.0) AND JMX is configured with remote access enabled.
  5. Verify JMX authentication and SSL settings
    If JMX is found to be active, inspect the jmxremote.password and jmxremote.access files in the JRE management directory, and check whether SSL is disabled ('-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false').
    Affected if JMX is accessible without authentication (jmxremote.password not configured) AND SSL is disabled, allowing unauthenticated remote access.

You are affected if you have Oracle Java SE (6u113, 7u99, 8u77 or earlier), JRockit R28.3.9, or an affected Apache Cassandra version running with JMX remote management enabled and accessible over the network without proper authentication controls.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.1.22 / 2.2.18 / 3.0.22 or later
Fixed in 2.1.222.2.183.0.22
Vendor patch www.oracle.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to patched Java versions (post-8u77 for Java 8, or later supported versions). If JMX is not required, disable it or restrict network access to trusted IPs only.

Recommended fix High confidence

Java 8u91 or later (or Java 7u101+/Java 6u115+ for older deployments)

  1. Identify the current Java version installed on the system using 'java -version'
  2. For Oracle Java: Download and install Java SE 8u91 or later (or the latest available JDK 8 update) from Oracle's official Java SE download page
  3. For OpenJDK: Use the system package manager to update. On RHEL/CentOS: 'yum update java-1.8.0-openjdk' or 'yum update java-1.7.0-openjdk'. On Ubuntu/Debian: 'apt-get update && apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk'
  4. Verify the new Java version with 'java -version' to confirm installation
  5. For Cassandra specifically: Ensure the JMX authentication is properly configured in cassandra-env.sh or cassandra.yaml with RMI authentication enabled
  6. Restart any services that use Java after the update
Caveat Minimal - security update with no expected functional changes; test Java-dependent applications after upgrade

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

Fix this in Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing10.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,580
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2016-3427 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data