CVE-2016-5308
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 Client Intrusion Detection System (CIDS) driver before 15.0.6 in Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and before 15.1.2 in Norton Security allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and system crash) via a malformed Portable Executable (PE) file.
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 confidenceThe Client Intrusion Detection System (CIDS) driver in Symantec Endpoint Protection and Norton Security fails to properly handle malformed Portable Executable (PE) files, leading to memory corruption and system crash (denial of service).
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< 15.1.2< 15.0.6CVSS 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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Verify Symantec product is installedCheck for installed security products: Look for 'Symantec Endpoint Protection' or 'Norton Security' in Add/Remove Programs (Windows) or check for related services/processes (e.g., SEP's smc service, Norton processes)Affected if Neither product is installed, then not affected by this CVE
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Identify installed product versionOpen the Symantec/Norton user interface and navigate to Help > About, or check the product version via the installed programs list in Windows Control PanelAffected if Version cannot be determined - unable to assess vulnerability status
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Compare version against affected rangesCompare the installed version to: Symantec Endpoint Protection versions < 15.0.6, or Norton Security versions < 15.1.2Affected if Version is below 15.0.6 for Endpoint Protection or below 15.1.2 for Norton Security - environment is vulnerable
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Confirm CIDS driver is activeCheck if the CIDS (Client Intrusion Detection System) driver is loaded: Run 'sc query' for services containing 'CIDS' or 'Intrusion' in the name, or check driver status via 'driverquery' commandAffected if CIDS driver is enabled and product version is in the affected range - vulnerable to the PE file handling flaw
User is affected if Symantec Endpoint Protection version is below 15.0.6 or Norton Security version is below 15.1.2 AND the CIDS driver is enabled in the environment.
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 data15.0.615.1.2
Upgrade Symantec Endpoint Protection to version 15.0.6 or later, or Norton Security to version 15.1.2 or later.
- Consultation2.0 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 $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-5308 — 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-2016-5308 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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