Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2017-16997

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

Published2017-12-18
WeaknessCWE-426

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

elf/dl-load.c in the GNU C Library (aka glibc or libc6) 2.19 through 2.26 mishandles RPATH and RUNPATH containing $ORIGIN for a privileged (setuid or AT_SECURE) program, which allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse library in the current working directory, related to the fillin_rpath and decompose_rpath functions. This is associated with misinterpretion of an empty RPATH/RUNPATH token as the "./" directory. NOTE: this configuration of RPATH/RUNPATH for a privileged program is apparently very uncommon; most likely, no such program is shipped with any common Linux distribution.

Timeline

dates in UTC

2017-12-1801:29CVE publishedNVD
2026-10-2319:23First public proof of conceptPoC-in-GitHub

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 18:48 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-2017-16997?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2017-16997?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD

Gnu glibc

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
2.19	= 2.19	no fix published	NVD
2.20	= 2.20	no fix published	NVD
2.21	= 2.21	no fix published	NVD
2.22	= 2.22	no fix published	NVD
2.23	= 2.23	no fix published	NVD
2.25	= 2.25	no fix published	NVD
2.26	= 2.26	no fix published	NVD

Redhat enterprise linux desktop

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
7.0	= 7.0	no fix published	NVD

Redhat enterprise linux server

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
7.0	= 7.0	no fix published	NVD

1 more product 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

Detection

read 2026-10-23 19:23 UTC

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: 1 repository, unverifiedXiami2012/CVE-2017-16997-poc

Sources

NVDCVSS 3.07.8read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 2.09.3read 2026-10-23
NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-426read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score2.9 %2026-10-22
PoC-in-GitHubproof of concept1read 2026-10-23

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published: 2017-12-18
Last Modified: 2026-06-17
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-16997?

Is CVE-2017-16997 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2017-16997 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 2.9% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2017-16997?

CVE-2017-16997 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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