# CVE-2016-4478: Memory corruption in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service in Atheme IRC services via a buffer overflow in XMLRPC response encoding.

- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 13 Jun 2016
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2016-4478, DSA-3586-1, GHSA-f9c4-56cj-69qg, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-4478

## What is CVE-2016-4478?

CVE-2016-4478 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 13 Jun 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Buffer overflow in the xmlrpc_char_encode function in modules/transport/xmlrpc/xmlrpclib.c in Atheme before 7.2.7 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via vectors related to XMLRPC response encoding.

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-4478?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Atheme Atheme, Debian Debian Linux, Opensuse Leap, Opensuse Opensuse.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-4478?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-4478 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-4478 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2022-24976](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-24976/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2024-27508](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-27508/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-6384](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6384/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2014-9773](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-9773/): Missing authorization in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2012-1576](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-1576/): Auth bypass in n/a (medium 6.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-4478 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-4478 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 13 Jun 2016. 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-2016-4478 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-2016-4478/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-4478/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-4478
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-4478
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-4478

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-4478/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.