# CVE-2016-9167: Privilege escalation in Novell eDirectory

> Novell eDirectory allows privilege escalation via incorrect ACL calculation across partition boundaries, enabling unauthorized modification of user attributes.

- **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:** No
- **Published:** 23 Mar 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-wqm7-3p5m-h5g8

## What is CVE-2016-9167?

CVE-2016-9167 is a high-severity vulnerability in Novell Edirectory, published on 23 Mar 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

NDSD in Novell eDirectory before 9.0.2 did not calculate ACLs on LDAP objects across partition boundaries correctly, which could lead to a privilege escalation by modifying user attributes that would otherwise be filtered by an ACL.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-9167?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Novell Edirectory.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-9167?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-9167 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-9167 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-9167 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Novell Edirectory

- [CVE-2009-0895](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-0895/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-5091](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5091/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-5092](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5092/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-5094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5094/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-4478](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4478/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-9167 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-9167 is a high-severity vulnerability in Novell Edirectory, published on 23 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-2016-9167 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Novell Edirectory. 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-2016-9167/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9167/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-9167
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-9167
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-9167

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9167/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.