Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2016-5344

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2016-08-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 7.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
Multiple integer overflows in the MDSS driver for the Linux kernel 3.x, as used in Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC) Android contributions for MSM devices and other products, allow attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via a large size value, related to mdss_compat_utils.c, mdss_fb.c, and mdss_rotator.c.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-190

An arithmetic operation produces a value too large for its type and wraps around to an unexpected — often tiny or negative — number. That miscalculated value then drives a memory allocation or a bounds check, opening the door to corruption. The fix is checked arithmetic and validating sizes before they're used.

General guidance for the integer overflow class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 3.0, <= 3.19.8
AndroidOperating system
Affected:<= 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

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 a release after 7.0
Vendor patch source.android.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel > 3.19.8 (e.g., 4.x stable branch) or Android with October 2016 Security Patch Level

  1. Check the Android Security Bulletin October 2016 at the vendor URL for the specific patch commit for this CVE
  2. Identify the Android version running on the affected device (Android <= 7.0 is vulnerable)
  3. Apply the October 2016 Android Security Patch Level (SPL) or later to the device
  4. For Linux kernel deployments, upgrade the kernel to a version beyond 3.19.8 that contains the upstream fix for the MDSS integer overflow vulnerability
  5. Verify the patch was applied by checking the kernel version and build date
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require rebuilding kernel modules and could affect device-specific drivers; Android patch updates should be tested for compatibility with device-specific hardware configurations

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

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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-2016-5344 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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