CVE-2016-2781 Privilege escalation in n/a

Medium 4.6 Published 7 Feb 2017 Updated 9 Jun 2025

Local attackers can escape chroot jails to the parent session via crafted TIOCSTI ioctl calls when using the --userspec option.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2016-2781?

CVE-2016-2781 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 7 Feb 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

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.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-2781?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Gnu Coreutils.

How do I fix CVE-2016-2781?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2016-2781 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-2781 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as AZL-34628, AZL-6355, DEBIAN-CVE-2016-2781, ECHO-e0c5-f2a2-174a, GHSA-vf3q-65gx-324p, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-2781.