# CVE-2016-9939: Denial of service in n/a

> An attacker can cause a denial of service by triggering a noticeable delay during memory wiping in the ASN.1 BER decoding routine.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.0/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:** 30 Jan 2017
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2016-9939, DLA-766-1, DSA-3748-1, GHSA-x7wj-9rr2-gfcg, MGASA-2017-0010, SUSE-SU-2021:3301-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-9939, openSUSE-SU-2021:3301-1

## What is CVE-2016-9939?

CVE-2016-9939 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 30 Jan 2017. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Crypto++ (aka cryptopp and libcrypto++) 5.6.4 contained a bug in its ASN.1 BER decoding routine. The library will allocate a memory block based on the length field of the ASN.1 object. If there is not enough content octets in the ASN.1 object, then the function will fail and the memory block will be zeroed even if its unused. There is a noticeable delay during the wipe for a large allocation.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-9939?

It affects 2 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `libcryptopp` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2 | All versions | 5.6.5-1.6.1 |
| `libcryptopp` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 | All versions | 5.6.5-1.6.1 |
| `libcryptopp` | openSUSE:Leap 15.3 | All versions | 5.6.5-1.6.1 |

Products: Cryptopp Crypto\+\+, Debian Debian Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-9939?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-9939 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-9939 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2023-50980](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-50980/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2023-50981](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-50981/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2022-48570](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-48570/): Information disclosure in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2016-3995](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-3995/): Information disclosure in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2016-7544](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7544/): Use after free in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-9939 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-9939 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 30 Jan 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-2016-9939 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-2016-9939/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9939/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-9939
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-9939
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-9939

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-9939/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.