# CVE-2016-7141: Auth bypass in n/a

> Remote attackers can hijack TLS authentication by reusing a previously loaded client certificate when no certificate is set, affecting curl built with NSS.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 3 Oct 2016
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2016-7141, CLEANSTART-2026-RA92052, CURL-CVE-2016-7141, DEBIAN-CVE-2016-7141, DLA-616-1, GHSA-vx32-35rm-8jq5, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-7141

## What is CVE-2016-7141?

CVE-2016-7141 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Haxx Libcurl, published on 3 Oct 2016. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

curl and libcurl before 7.50.2, when built with NSS and the libnsspem.so library is available at runtime, allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of a TLS connection by leveraging reuse of a previously loaded client certificate from file for a connection for which no certificate has been set, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-5420.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-7141?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Haxx Libcurl, Opensuse Leap.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-7141?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-7141 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-7141 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Haxx Libcurl

- [CVE-2024-6197](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-6197/): freeing stack buffer in utf8asn1str (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-1000254](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1000254/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-1000099](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1000099/): Information disclosure in n/a (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2017-1000100](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1000100/): Information disclosure in n/a (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2024-7264](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-7264/): ASN.1 date parser overread (medium 6.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-7141 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-7141 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Haxx Libcurl, published on 3 Oct 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-2016-7141 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Haxx Libcurl. 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-2016-7141/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7141/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-7141
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-7141
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-7141

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7141/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.