# CVE-2016-1238: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can gain privileges by placing a Trojan horse module in the current working directory due to improper path handling in Perl utilities.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 Aug 2016
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2016-1238, DEBIAN-CVE-2016-1238, DLA-584-1, GHSA-hm5v-6984-hfqp, SUSE-SU-2019:0505-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-1238, openSUSE-SU-2019:0297-1, openSUSE-SU-2024:10523-1, openSUSE-SU-2024:11162-1, openSUSE-SU-2024:11163-1, openSUSE-SU-2024:11706-1, openSUSE-SU-2025:14657-1

## What is CVE-2016-1238?

CVE-2016-1238 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 2 Aug 2016. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

(1) cpan/Archive-Tar/bin/ptar, (2) cpan/Archive-Tar/bin/ptardiff, (3) cpan/Archive-Tar/bin/ptargrep, (4) cpan/CPAN/scripts/cpan, (5) cpan/Digest-SHA/shasum, (6) cpan/Encode/bin/enc2xs, (7) cpan/Encode/bin/encguess, (8) cpan/Encode/bin/piconv, (9) cpan/Encode/bin/ucmlint, (10) cpan/Encode/bin/unidump, (11) cpan/ExtUtils-MakeMaker/bin/instmodsh, (12) cpan/IO-Compress/bin/zipdetails, (13) cpan/JSON-PP/bin/json_pp, (14) cpan/Test-Harness/bin/prove, (15) dist/ExtUtils-ParseXS/lib/ExtUtils/xsubpp, (16) dist/Module-CoreList/corelist, (17) ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html, (18) utils/c2ph.PL, (19) utils/h2ph.PL, (20) utils/h2xs.PL, (21) utils/libnetcfg.PL, (22) utils/perlbug.PL, (23) utils/perldoc.PL, (24) utils/perlivp.PL, and (25) utils/splain.PL in Perl 5.x before 5.22.3-RC2 and 5.24 before 5.24.1-RC2 do not properly remove . (period) characters from the end of the includes directory array, which might allow local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse module under the current working directory.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-1238?

It affects 5 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `amavisd-new` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 | All versions | 2.11.1-6.3.1 |
| `perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker` | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 7.64-1.1 |
| `perl-IO-Compress` | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 2.213.0-1.1 |
| `perl-MIME-Charset` | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.012.2-1.16 |
| `perl-Test-File` | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.448-1.5 |

Products: Apache Spamassassin, Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Opensuse Leap, Perl Perl.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-1238?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-1238 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-1238 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2020-1946](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1946/): Apache SpamAssassin has an OS Command Injection vulnerability (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-11780](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-11780/): Code injection in Apache SpamAssassin (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-1930](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1930/): Command injection in Apache SpamAssassin (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2020-1931](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-1931/): Command injection in Apache SpamAssassin (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2018-11781](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-11781/): Apache SpamAssassin 3.4.2 fixes a local user code injection in the meta rule syntax. (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-1238 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-1238 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 2 Aug 2016. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-1238 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. 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-2016-1238/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1238/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-1238
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-1238
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-1238

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1238/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.