# CVE-2016-8621: Memory corruption in curl

> An out-of-bounds read in curl's date parsing function can cause crashes or leak memory contents when processing malformed input.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/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:** 31 Jul 2018
- **Updated:** 16 Apr 2026
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2016-8621, CLEANSTART-2026-GY15629, CURL-CVE-2016-8621, DEBIAN-CVE-2016-8621, GHSA-h48j-q99p-f494, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-8621

## What is CVE-2016-8621?

CVE-2016-8621 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Haxx Curl, published on 31 Jul 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The `curl_getdate` function in curl before version 7.51.0 is vulnerable to an out of bounds read if it receives an input with one digit short.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-8621?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Haxx Curl.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-8621?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-8621 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-8621 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Haxx Curl

- [CVE-2026-19931](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19931/): Negotiate ambient user conn reuse (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-10536](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-10536/): HTTP/2 stream-dependency tree UAF (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-11856](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-11856/): cross-origin Digest auth state leak (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-8925](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-8925/): SASL double-free (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-9079](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-9079/): stale proxy password leak (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-8621 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-8621 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Haxx Curl, published on 31 Jul 2018. 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-2016-8621 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Haxx Curl. 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-2016-8621/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8621/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-8621
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-8621
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-8621

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8621/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.