# CVE-2016-10363: Denial of service in Logstash

> Remote attackers can crash Logstash instances by sending malicious Netflow packets when the Netflow Codec plugin is enabled.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Jun 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x36p-26r2-96m6

## What is CVE-2016-10363?

CVE-2016-10363 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Elastic Logstash, published on 16 Jun 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Logstash versions prior to 2.3.3, when using the Netflow Codec plugin, a remote attacker crafting malicious Netflow v5, Netflow v9 or IPFIX packets could perform a denial of service attack on the Logstash instance. The errors resulting from these crafted inputs are not handled by the codec and can cause the Logstash process to exit.

Weakness: CWE-404 (Improper Resource Shutdown or Release), CWE-248 (Uncaught Exception)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-10363?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Elastic Logstash.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-10363?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-10363 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-10363 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-10363 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Elastic Logstash

- [CVE-2019-7612](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-7612/): Information disclosure in Logstash (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-46672](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-46672/): Logstash Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2026-33466](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33466/): Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory in Logstash Leading to Arbitrary File Write (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2019-7620](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-7620/): Denial of service in Logstash (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2015-5378](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5378/): Information disclosure in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-10363 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-10363 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Elastic Logstash, published on 16 Jun 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-10363 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Elastic Logstash. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10363/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10363/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-10363
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10363
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-10363

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10363/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.