CVE-2016-1247

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 4.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2016-11-29 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-59

Description

The nginx package before 1.6.2-5+deb8u3 on Debian jessie, the nginx packages before 1.4.6-1ubuntu3.6 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, before 1.10.0-0ubuntu0.16.04.3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and before 1.10.1-0ubuntu1.1 on Ubuntu 16.10, and the nginx ebuild before 1.10.2-r3 on Gentoo allow local users with access to the web server user account to gain root privileges via a symlink attack on the error log.

Affected products

nginx: through 1.10.1; through 1.10.0; through 1.6.2; through 1.4.3
Fedoraproject Fedora: 33, 34, 35

References

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/139750/Nginx-Debian-Based-Distros-Root-Privilege-Escalation.html
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Nov/78
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2017/Jan/33
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3701
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/539796/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93903
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1037104
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-3114-1
https://legalhackers.com/advisories/Nginx-Exploit-Deb-Root-PrivEsc-CVE-2016-1247.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/CBIZEKHBOCKO7FUMCO4X53ENMWU5OYFX/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ESTIADC7BDB6VTH4JAP6C6OCW2CQ4NHP/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/P3WOO7E5R2HT5XVOIOFPEFALILVOWZUF/

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