CVE-2016-2378 Memory corruption in Pidgin

What is CVE-2016-2378?

CVE-2016-2378 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 6 Jan 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the handling of the MXIT protocol Pidgin. Specially crafted data sent via the server could potentially result in a buffer overflow, potentially resulting in memory corruption. A malicious server or an unfiltered malicious user can send negative length values to trigger this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-119

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-2378?

It affects 3 products.

Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Pidgin Pidgin.

How do I fix CVE-2016-2378?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2016-2378 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-2378 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

• CVE-2020-11651 SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2020-7247 OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2019-16928 Exim Out-of-bounds Write Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2018-6789 Exim Buffer Overflow Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2015-2590 Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 9.8

All Canonical Ubuntu Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2016-2378, GHSA-crwf-mvg9-fxf3, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-2378.