Big Ip Edge GatewayWeb browser · F5
CVE-2016-3686
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 Single Sign-On (SSO) feature in F5 BIG-IP APM 11.x before 11.6.0 HF6 and BIG-IP Edge Gateway 11.0.0 through 11.3.0 might allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive SessionId information by leveraging access to the Location HTTP header in a redirect.
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 confidenceThe SSO feature in F5 BIG-IP APM 11.x before 11.6.0 HF6 and BIG-IP Edge Gateway 11.0.0-11.3.0 exposes sensitive SessionId information through the Location HTTP header during redirect operations, allowing attackers with access to the header to obtain session credentials.
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
Big Ip Edge GatewayWeb browser
= 11.0.0= 11.1.0= 11.2.0= 11.2.1= 11.3.0
Big Ip Access Policy ManagerApplication
= 11.0.0= 11.1.0= 11.2.0= 11.2.1= 11.3.0= 11.4.0= 11.4.1= 11.5.0= 11.5.1= 11.5.2= 11.5.3= 11.5.4CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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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Identify the installed F5 productRun 'tmsh show sys version' or check the system dashboard to determine if BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) or BIG-IP Edge Gateway is installedAffected if The product is BIG-IP APM or BIG-IP Edge Gateway
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Check the installed versionRun 'tmsh show sys version' and locate the build version. Compare it to the affected ranges: APM versions 11.0.0-11.5.4 or Edge Gateway versions 11.0.0-11.3.0Affected if The version falls within 11.0.0-11.5.4 for APM or 11.0.0-11.3.0 for Edge Gateway
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Verify if APM SSO is configuredNavigate to Access Policy > SSO in the BIG-IP configuration or run 'tmsh list apm profile sslo' to list configured SSO profilesAffected if SSO profiles are configured and enabled on the APM
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Inspect Location headers in redirect responsesCapture HTTP traffic during authentication redirects using a proxy or tcpdump, then examine Location headers for exposed SessionId parametersAffected if The Location header contains unencoded SessionId or sensitive session identifiers in the URL
You are affected if you run BIG-IP APM 11.0.0-11.5.4 or Edge Gateway 11.0.0-11.3.0 with SSO profiles configured, and your redirect Location headers expose session identifiers.
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 F5 BIG-IP APM to version 11.6.0 HF6 or later, and BIG-IP Edge Gateway to a patched version. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, audit access logs for suspicious requests to Location headers and restrict access to redirect responses.
Fix this in Big Ip Edge Gateway
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-3686 — 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-2016-3686 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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- 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