CVE-2016-5008

Publication date 13 July 2016

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

libvirt before 2.0.0 improperly disables password checking when the password on a VNC server is set to an empty string, which allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and establish a VNC session by connecting to the server.

Read the notes from the security team

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
libvirt	21.04 hirsute	Fixed 2.1.0-1.ubuntu1
	20.10 groovy	Fixed 2.1.0-1.ubuntu1
	20.04 LTS focal	Fixed 2.1.0-1.ubuntu1
	19.10 eoan	Fixed 2.1.0-1.ubuntu1
	19.04 disco	Fixed 2.1.0-1.ubuntu1
	18.10 cosmic	Fixed 2.1.0-1.ubuntu1
	18.04 LTS bionic	Fixed 2.1.0-1.ubuntu1
	17.10 artful	Fixed 2.1.0-1ubuntu1
	17.04 zesty	Ignored end of life
	16.10 yakkety	Ignored end of life
	16.04 LTS xenial	Fixed 1.3.1-1ubuntu10.19
	15.10 wily	Ignored end of life
	14.04 LTS trusty	Fixed 1.2.2-0ubuntu13.1.26
	12.04 LTS precise	Ignored end of life

Notes

mdeslaur

vnc password authentication isn't strong and isn't recommended so setting priority to low to bundle with another update

leosilva

this CVE was original patched in unstable 2.0.0-1.

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package	Patch details
libvirt	Upstream: http://libvirt.org/git/?p=libvirt.git;a=commit;h=bb848feec0f3f10e92dd8e5231ae7aa89b5598f3

Severity score breakdown

Parameter	Value
Base score	9.8 · Critical
Attack vector	Network
Attack complexity	Low
Privileges required	None
User interaction	None
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality	High
Integrity impact	High
Availability impact	High
Vector	CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

Related Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)

USN-3576-1
libvirt vulnerabilities
20 February 2018