# CVE-2016-8610: Denial of service in OpenSSL

> Remote attackers can cause excessive CPU consumption in TLS/SSL servers via crafted ALERT packets, leading to service unavailability.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/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 Nov 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2016-8610, GHSA-v2q2-jxh8-m5h8, SUSE-SU-2018:3994-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-8610, USN-3183-2

## What is CVE-2016-8610?

CVE-2016-8610 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 13 Nov 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A denial of service flaw was found in OpenSSL 0.9.8, 1.0.1, 1.0.2 through 1.0.2h, and 1.1.0 in the way the TLS/SSL protocol defined processing of ALERT packets during a connection handshake. A remote attacker could use this flaw to make a TLS/SSL server consume an excessive amount of CPU and fail to accept connections from other clients.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-8610?

It affects 45 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `compat-openssl097g` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 11 SP4 | All versions | 0.9.7g-146.22.51.8.1 |

Products: Debian Debian Linux, Fujitsu M10-1 Firmware, Fujitsu M10-4 Firmware, Fujitsu M10-4s Firmware, Fujitsu M12-1 Firmware, Fujitsu M12-2 Firmware, Fujitsu M12-2s Firmware, Netapp Clustered Data Ontap, Netapp Clustered Data Ontap Antivirus Connector, Netapp Cn1610 Firmware, Netapp Data Ontap, Netapp Data Ontap Edge, Netapp E-Series Santricity Os Controller, Netapp Host Agent, Netapp Oncommand Balance, Netapp Oncommand Unified Manager, Netapp Oncommand Workflow Automation, Netapp Ontap Select Deploy, Netapp Service Processor, Netapp Smi-S Provider and 25 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-8610?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-8610 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-8610 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- CVE-2016-8610 (SSL Death Alert) PoC (github_poc): https://github.com/cujanovic/CVE-2016-8610-PoC

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-8610 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-8610 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 13 Nov 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-2016-8610 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-2016-8610/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8610/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-8610
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-8610
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-8610

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8610/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.