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DockerApplication

CVE-2016-8867

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-10-28
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
Docker Engine 1.12.2 enabled ambient capabilities with misconfigured capability policies. This allowed malicious images to bypass user permissions to access files within the container filesystem or mounted volumes.

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 confidence

Docker Engine 1.12.2 enabled ambient capabilities with misconfigured capability policies, allowing malicious container images to bypass user permission checks and access files within the container filesystem or mounted volumes.

MitigationUpgrade Docker Engine to a patched version and review capability configurations to ensure ambient capabilities are properly restricted per least-privilege principles.

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
DockerApplication
Affected:= 1.12.2

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
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Docker Engine version
    Run 'docker --version' or 'docker version' command to identify the installed Docker Engine version
    Affected if Version is exactly 1.12.2
  2. Verify ambient capabilities configuration
    Examine Docker daemon configuration (typically /etc/docker/daemon.json) for capability-related settings such as 'default-cap-add', 'default-ulimits', or any 'ambient' capability entries. Also check container runtime security profiles.
    Affected if Ambient capabilities are enabled or broad capabilities are configured as defaults
  3. Inspect container capability grants
    List running containers with 'docker ps -a' and inspect each with 'docker inspect <container_id>' to review the 'HostConfig.CapAdd' and 'HostConfig.CapDrop' fields for overly permissive grants
    Affected if Containers have elevated capabilities (especially CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE, CAP_SYS_ADMIN, or similar) that could enable file access beyond container boundaries

Affected if running Docker Engine version 1.12.2 AND containers are configured with ambient or elevated capabilities that bypass user permission checks.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Docker Engine to a patched version and review capability configurations to ensure ambient capabilities are properly restricted per least-privilege principles.

Fix this in Docker Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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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-2016-8867 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data