No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2017-16544

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

Published2017-11-20
WeaknessCWE-94

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

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.

Timeline

dates in UTC

2017-11-2015:29CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC

Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days

Block these indicators

Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2017-16544?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2017-16544?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD

Vmware esxi

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
6.0	= 6.0	no fix published	NVD
6.5	= 6.5	no fix published	NVD
6.7	= 6.7	no fix published	NVD

Canonical ubuntu linux

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
14.4	= 14.04	no fix published	NVD
16.4	= 16.04	no fix published	NVD

Debian debian linux

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
8.0	= 8.0	no fix published	NVD
9.0	= 9.0	no fix published	NVD

3 more products in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

Advisories and patches

git.busybox.netPatch · Vendor Advisory

Detection

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: none listed

Sources

CISA-ADPSSVC decisionnone2025-06-09
OpenCVESSVC decisionnone—
CISA-ADPCVSS 3.18.82025-06-09
NVDCVSS 3.18.8read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 2.06.5read 2026-10-23
CISA-ADPweakness (CWE)CWE-942025-06-09
NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-94read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score6.1 %2026-10-23

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published: 2017-11-20
Last Modified: 2026-06-17
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-16544?

Is CVE-2017-16544 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2017-16544 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 6.1% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2017-16544?

CVE-2017-16544 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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