# CVE-2016-6908: Open redirect in n/a

> Attackers can spoof URLs in Opera for Android by exploiting RTL rendering flaws, potentially misleading users about the destination site.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.1 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 26 Jan 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-7xf8-x4wh-25c5

## What is CVE-2016-6908?

CVE-2016-6908 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Opera Opera Browser, published on 26 Jan 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Characters from languages are such as Arabic, Hebrew are displayed from RTL (Right To Left) order in Opera 37.0.2192.105088 for Android, due to mishandling of several unicode characters such as U+FE70, U+0622, U+0623 etc and how they are rendered combined with (first strong character) such as an IP address or alphabet could lead to a spoofed URL. It was noticed that by placing neutral characters such as "/", "?" in filepath causes the URL to be flipped and displayed from Right To Left. However, in order for the URL to be spoofed the URL must begin with an IP address followed by neutral characters as omnibox considers IP address to be combination of punctuation and numbers and since LTR (Left To Right) direction is not properly enforced, this causes the entire URL to be treated and rendered from RTL (Right To Left). However, it doesn't have be an IP address, what matters is that first strong character (generally, alphabetic character) in the URL must be an RTL character.

Weakness: CWE-601 (URL Redirection to Untrusted Site)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-6908?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Opera Opera Browser.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-6908?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-6908 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-6908 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-6908 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Opera Opera Browser

- [CVE-2013-3211](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-3211/): Unspecified vulnerability in Opera before 12.15 has unknown impact and attack vectors, related to a "moderately severe issue." (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-4145](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-4145/): Other in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-3559](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-3559/): Other in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-3561](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-3561/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2011-4683](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-4683/): Unspecified vulnerability in Opera before 11.60 has unknown impact and attack vectors, related to a "moderately severe issue." (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-6908 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-6908 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Opera Opera Browser, published on 26 Jan 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-6908 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Opera Opera Browser. 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-2016-6908/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6908/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-6908
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-6908
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-6908

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6908/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.