What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2017-16544

• Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 6.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2017-11-20 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-94

Description

In the add_match function in libbb/lineedit.c in BusyBox through 1.27.2, the tab autocomplete feature of the shell, used to get a list of filenames in a directory, does not sanitize filenames and results in executing any escape sequence in the terminal. This could potentially result in code execution, arbitrary file writes, or other attacks.

Affected products

• busybox: through 1.27.2
• Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 14.04, 16.04 (and their updates)
• Debian Linux: 8.0, 9.0 (and their updates)
• Redlion N-Tron 702-W Firmware: all versions
• Redlion N-Tron 702M12-W Firmware: all versions
• VMware ESXi: 6.0-1, 6.0-1a, 6.0-1b, 6.0-2, 6.0-3, 6.0-3a (+170); 6.0, 6.5, 6.7; 6.0 (and their updates)

References

• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/154361/Cisco-Device-Hardcoded-Credentials-GNU-glibc-BusyBox.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/154536/VMware-Security-Advisory-2019-0013.html
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/167552/Nexans-FTTO-GigaSwitch-Outdated-Components-Hardcoded-Backdoor.html
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Jun/18
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Sep/7
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Aug/20
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Mar/15
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Sep/6
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2021/Aug/21
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2021/Jan/39
• http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2022/Jun/36
• http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2019-0013.html

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