# CVE-2016-5417: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service via memory consumption in the glibc resolver due to improper initialization of internal data structures.

- **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:** 16 Feb 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2016-5417, GHSA-qqpx-rhfx-8mgf, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-5417

## What is CVE-2016-5417?

CVE-2016-5417 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Glibc, published on 16 Feb 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Memory leak in the __res_vinit function in the IPv6 name server management code in libresolv in GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) before 2.24 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by leveraging partial initialization of internal resolver data structures.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-5417?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gnu Glibc.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-5417?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-5417 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-5417 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Gnu Glibc

- [CVE-2026-5450](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-5450/): scanf %mc off-by-one heap buffer overflow (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-25139](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25139/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-1999-0199](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0199/): Other in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-1010022](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-1010022/): Security feature bypass in glibc (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2005-3590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-3590/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-5417 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-5417 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gnu Glibc, published on 16 Feb 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-2016-5417 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Gnu Glibc. 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-2016-5417/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-5417/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-5417
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-5417
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-5417

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-5417/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.