CVE-2016-4488
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 · uneditedUse-after-free vulnerability in libiberty allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault and crash) via a crafted binary, related to "ktypevec."
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 · moderate confidenceUse-after-free vulnerability in libiberty where memory is accessed after being freed during parsing of a crafted binary, specifically in code path related to 'ktypevec'. This leads to a segmentation fault and denial of service when the malformed binary is processed.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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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Identify if libiberty is presentSearch for libiberty shared library files: find /usr/lib /lib -name '*libiberty*' 2>/dev/null, or check package manager: dpkg -l | grep libiberty (Debian) / rpm -qa | grep libiberty (RHEL)Affected if No libiberty library found means not affected; if found, proceed to version check
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Determine installed libiberty versionFor library files, use: objdump -p /path/to/libiberty.so 2>/dev/null | grep -i version, or check package version with: apt-cache policy libiberty-dev (Debian) / yum info libiberty (RHEL)Affected if If version is present and cannot be confirmed as patched (all versions affected per CVE), further checks required
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Identify applications using libibertySearch for executables or tools that link to libiberty: ldd /usr/bin/* 2>/dev/null | grep libiberty, or check common tools that depend on libiberty like binutils, gdb, or other binary analysis toolsAffected if Applications using libiberty exist and process external binary files, potential attack surface exists
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Check if binary parsing handles untrusted inputReview configuration or usage patterns for tools that parse binary files (object files, executables, ELF files). Determine if these tools process files from untrusted sources or network inputAffected if Systems where libiberty-using tools process untrusted binary files are at risk of triggering the use-after-free via malformed input
A system is affected if it runs any version of libiberty in conjunction with tools that parse binary files from untrusted sources, allowing a crafted binary to trigger the ktypevec use-after-free.
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 dataUpdate or patch libiberty to a version containing the fix for this use-after-free vulnerability. If a patch is unavailable, recompile libiberty from source with address sanitizer options to identify the specific code path and apply a fix to properly manage the freed memory object.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $4,480.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4488 — 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-2016-4488 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
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