Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian
CVE-2016-4561
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 · uneditedCross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the cgierror function in CGI.pm in ikiwiki before 3.20160506 might allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors involving an error message.
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 confidenceA cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in the cgierror function of CGI.pm within ikiwiki versions prior to 3.20160506. The vulnerability allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary JavaScript or HTML through unsanitized error messages generated by the cgierror function.
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
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 8.0<= 3.20160121CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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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Verify ikiwiki is installedRun 'dpkg -l | grep ikiwiki' on Debian systems, or check for ikiwiki executable with 'which ikiwiki' or 'ikiwiki --version'Affected if ikiwiki is not found on the system, then not affected
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Determine installed ikiwiki versionRun 'ikiwiki --version' or 'dpkg -l ikiwiki' to retrieve the exact version numberAffected if version number is 3.20160121 or earlier, or any version prior to 3.20160506
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Confirm CGI.pm cgierror function is in useCheck if CGI-based error handling is enabled. Inspect ikiwiki configuration files for CGI wrapper usage, or look for cgierror calls in the ikiwiki CGI setupAffected if CGI wrapper is enabled and using the cgierror function for error handling - the vulnerability requires this code path to be exercised
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Compare version against affected rangesCompare your installed version against the known affected range: versions <= 3.20160121 or any version prior to 3.20160506Affected if installed version falls within or below the affected version range
User is affected if ikiwiki version is 3.20160121 or earlier, or any version prior to 3.20160506, and the CGI error handling feature is enabled.
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 ikiwiki to version 3.20160506 or later, which contains the patched CGI.pm library with proper output encoding in the cgierror function.
Fix this in Debian Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4561 — 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-2016-4561 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
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