# CVE-2016-9124: Security feature bypass in Revive Adserver All versions before 3.2.3

> Attackers can perform password-guessing attacks against the login page due to insufficient rate limiting, potentially leading to account takeover.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 28 Mar 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jq2f-3xc4-634f

## What is CVE-2016-9124?

CVE-2016-9124 is a critical vulnerability in Revive-Adserver Revive Adserver, published on 28 Mar 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Revive Adserver before 3.2.3 suffers from Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts. The login page of Revive Adserver is vulnerable to password-guessing attacks. An account lockdown feature was considered, but rejected to avoid introducing service disruptions to regular users during such attacks. A random delay has instead been introduced as a countermeasure in case of password failures, along with a system to discourage parallel brute forcing. These systems will effectively allow the valid users to log in to the adserver, even while an attack is in progress.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication), CWE-307 (Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-9124?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Revive-Adserver Revive Adserver.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-9124?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-9124 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-9124 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-9124 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Revive-Adserver Revive Adserver

- [CVE-2016-9125](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9125/): Auth bypass in Revive Adserver All versions before 3.2.3 (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-5830](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5830/): Deserialization in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-9470](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9470/): Other in Revive Adserver All versions before 3.2.5 and 4.0.0 (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2026-50741](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-50741/): Code injection in Adserver (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2025-48986](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-48986/): Missing authorization in Revive Adserver (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-9124 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-9124 is a critical vulnerability in Revive-Adserver Revive Adserver, published on 28 Mar 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-2016-9124 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Revive-Adserver Revive Adserver. 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-2016-9124/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9124/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-9124
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-9124
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-9124

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9124/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.