The overflow protection in Expat is removed by compilers with certain optimization settings, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via crafted XML data. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2015-1283 and CVE-2015-2716.
CVE-2016-4472
Score 8.1 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-05-13. NVD baseline CVSS 8.1; sources differ by 0.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 8.1
- EG Score
- 8.1(medium)
- EG Risk
- 57(Track)EG Risk 57/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity81% × 45%Exploitation40% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 12%
- EPSS %ILE
- 96%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
June 30, 2016
Last Modified
June 17, 2026
Advisory Details (5)
Auto-updated Sep 9, 20261344251 – (CVE-2016-4472) CVE-2016-4472 expat: Undefined behavior and pointer overflows
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1344251[R3] PVS 5.2.0 Fixes Multiple Third-party Library Vulnerabilities - Security Advisory | Tenable®
https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2016-20Expat XML Parser / Code_GIT / Commit [f0bec7]
https://sourceforge.net/p/expat/code_git/ci/f0bec73b018caa07d3e75ec8dd967f3785d71bdeExpat: Multiple vulnerabilities (GLSA 201701-21) — Gentoo security
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-21Patch Availability(3)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | libxmlrpc-core-c3 (1.16.33-3.1ubuntu5.2) @ precise | 2026-05-22 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | libxmltok1-dev (1.2-4ubuntu0.20.04.1~esm1) @ focal | 2026-05-22 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | libxmltok1t64 (1.2-4.1ubuntu3.1) @ oracular | 2026-05-22 | ubuntu |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(9 across 7 ecosystems)
Debian:11(2)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| expat | — | 2.1.1-2 | — |
| libxmltok | 1.2-4, 1.2-4.1, 1.2-4.1~exp1, 1.2-4.2 | — | — |
Debian:12(2)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| expat | — | 2.1.1-2 | — |
| libxmltok | 1.2-4, 1.2-4.1, 1.2-4.1~exp1, 1.2-4.2 | — | — |
Alpine:v3.4(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| expat | 2.0.1-r0 ... 2.1.1-r1 (12 versions) | 2.1.1-r2 | — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| expat | — | 2.1.1-2 | — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| expat | — | 2.1.1-2 | — |
Debian:7(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| expat | 2.1.0-1, 2.1.0-1+deb7u1, 2.1.0-1+deb7u2 | 2.1.0-1+deb7u3 | — |
Debian:8(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| expat | 2.1.0-6, 2.1.0-6+deb8u1 | 2.1.0-6+deb8u2 | — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(3)
Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 5× in last 7d / 17× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 142 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-09-24 13:59 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-09-19 15:35 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-18 23:23 UTCOSV refresh
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- 2026-08-15 01:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-14 11:15 UTCOSV refresh
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- 2026-07-29 22:37 UTCOSV refresh
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- 2026-07-23 01:23 UTCEG score recompute
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- 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-12 09:08 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-12 05:43 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 14:50 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
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Related CVEs(same product + same vendor + same CWE)
Same product
10 shownAlpine:v3.4:expat · Debian:7:expat · Debian:8:expat
- CVE-2016-0718EG 9.8EPSS p96CRITICAL
- CVE-2017-9233EG 7.5EPSS p95HIGH
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- CVE-2015-1283EG 6.8EPSS p97MEDIUM
- CVE-2019-15903EG 7.5EPSS p94HIGH
- CVE-2018-20843EG 7.5EPSS p94HIGH
- CVE-2024-45490EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2022-40674NVD 8.1EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2022-25315EG 9.8EPSS p92CRITICAL
Same vendor
10 shownubuntu:USN-3013-1 · ubuntu:USN-5455-1
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-119
- CVE-2016-4509EG 6.0MEDIUM
- CVE-2016-4512EG 7.3HIGH
- CVE-2016-4528EG 5.0MEDIUM
- CVE-2016-4519EG 9.8EPSS p91CRITICAL
- CVE-2016-4463EG 7.5EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2016-4533EG 7.8EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2016-4191EG 9.8EPSS p92CRITICAL
- CVE-2016-4192EG 9.8EPSS p92CRITICAL
- CVE-2016-4193EG 9.8EPSS p92CRITICAL
- CVE-2016-4194EG 9.8EPSS p92CRITICAL
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2016-4472?
When was CVE-2016-4472 disclosed?
Is CVE-2016-4472 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2016-4472?
How do I remediate CVE-2016-4472?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2016-4472
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