CVE-2016-7927
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 IEEE 802.11 parser in tcpdump before 4.9.0 has a buffer overflow in print-802_11.c:ieee802_11_radio_print().
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 confidenceA buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the IEEE 802.11 wireless frame parser (ieee802_11_radio_print function) in tcpdump versions prior to 4.9.0. The vulnerability is triggered during parsing of malformed 802.11 wireless packets, potentially allowing remote code execution by an attacker sending specially crafted packets to a system running tcpdump.
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<= 4.8.1CVSS 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:3.0/AV:N/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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Identify tcpdump installationRun 'tcpdump --version' or 'which tcpdump' to locate the binary and determine if tcpdump is present on the systemAffected if tcpdump is installed and running on the system
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Determine installed tcpdump versionExecute 'tcpdump --version' and note the version number displayed in the outputAffected if The version is 4.8.1 or earlier (any version prior to 4.9.0)
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Verify 802.11 wireless capture usageReview any scripts, cron jobs, or ongoing processes that invoke tcpdump with options for capturing wireless traffic (such as '-I' for monitor mode, or listening on wireless interfaces like wlan0, wlan1, etc.)Affected if tcpdump is being used to capture or analyze 802.11 wireless network traffic on interfaces operating in monitor or managed mode
A system is affected if tcpdump version 4.8.1 or earlier is installed AND it is actively capturing or processing 802.11 wireless frame traffic.
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.
dbcve · scopedUpgrade tcpdump to version 4.9.0 or later. Apply network segmentation and ingress filtering to limit exposure to untrusted network segments as defense-in-depth until the patch is applied.
tcpdump 4.9.0 or later
- Check the current installed version of tcpdump using 'tcpdump --version' or your system's package manager
- Update your system's package repository metadata to ensure you have access to the latest packages
- Upgrade tcpdump through your system's package manager (e.g., 'apt-get update && apt-get install tcpdump' for Debian/Ubuntu, 'yum update tcpdump' for RHEL/CentOS, or 'emerge -av net-analyzer/tcpdump' for Gentoo)
- Verify the installation was successful by checking 'tcpdump --version' shows version 4.9.0 or later
- Test that tcpdump functions normally with a basic capture command
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-7927 — 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-2016-7927 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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