chroot in GNU coreutils, when used with --userspec, allows local users to escape to the…
Priority LOW 22CWE-20Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · None
- Fix status
- Will not fix Red Hat: no fix planned
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
chroot in GNU coreutils, when used with --userspec, allows local users to escape to the parent session via a crafted TIOCSTI ioctl call, which pushes characters to the terminal's input buffer.
Why it matters now
Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00428 37th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Will not fix Red Hat: no fix planned
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2016-2781
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-vf3q-65gx-324p
References
Advisory 2
More GNU Coreutils vulnerabilities
- TI-2017-13227 In GNU Coreutils through 8.29, chown-core.c in chown and chgrp does not prevent… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.1
- TI-2015-01675 fts.c in coreutils 8.4 allows local users to delete arbitrary files. CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.1
- TI-2015-03409 Integer overflow in the keycompare_mb function in sort.c in sort in GNU Coreutils through… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-07697 The parse_datetime function in GNU coreutils allows remote attackers to cause a denial of… CVSS 2.0HIGH 7.5
- TI-2015-03408 The keycompare_mb function in sort.c in sort in GNU Coreutils through 8.23 on 64-bit… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
- TI-2024-00631 Coreutils: heap overflow in split --line-bytes with very long lines CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.5
Sources
- CVE-2016-2781 · CVE Program
- CVE-2016-2781 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-vf3q-65gx-324p · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2016-2781 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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