Quickstart Cloud InstallerApplication · Redhat
CVE-2016-6322
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 · uneditedRed Hat QuickStart Cloud Installer (QCI) uses world-readable permissions for /etc/qci/answers, which allows local users to obtain the root password for the deployed system by reading the 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 · high confidenceRed Hat QuickStart Cloud Installer stores the root password in /etc/qci/answers with world-readable (644) permissions, allowing any local user to read the file and obtain root credentials for the deployed system.
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
Quickstart Cloud InstallerApplication
all 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 QCI is installedCheck if the Red Hat QuickStart Cloud Installer package is present on the system. On RHEL-based systems, run: rpm -qa | grep -i qci or rpm -qa | grep -i quickstartAffected if The product is not installed on the system (not affected)
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Check if the answers file existsVerify the existence of /etc/qci/answers using: ls -la /etc/qci/answersAffected if The file does not exist (not affected, or QCI has never been run)
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Inspect file permissions on /etc/qci/answersRun: ls -l /etc/qci/answers and examine the permission bits. The file is vulnerable if permissions show 'rw-r--r--' (644) or similar world-readable settingsAffected if Permissions are world-readable (e.g., -rw-r--r--) meaning any user can read the file
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Verify world-readable accessTest read access as a non-root user: su - <non-root-user> -c 'cat /etc/qci/answers' or use 'stat -c %a /etc/qci/answers' to get numeric permissions. A result of 644 or higher first digit indicates world-readabilityAffected if Non-root users can successfully read the file contents
The system is affected if Red Hat QuickStart Cloud Installer is installed, /etc/qci/answers exists, and the file has world-readable (644 or higher) permissions allowing any local user to read stored credentials.
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 dataChange permissions on /etc/qci/answers to remove world-readable access (chmod 600 or restrict to root-only) and verify QCI functionality is unaffected.
Fix this in Quickstart Cloud Installer
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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 $1,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-6322 — 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-2016-6322 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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