Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2016-8615 is a curl cookie handling flaw. A malicious HTTP server could write cookies for other domains into a saved cookie jar. The main business risk is integrity: later automated requests may carry attacker-planted cookies, potentially confusing authentication or application behavior.
Executive priority
Treat as a routine but necessary remediation item. Prioritize internet-facing automation, data integrations, and shared build or container images that use curl with persisted cookies. This is not currently evidenced as exploited in the provided sources.
Technical view
In curl before version 7.51, persisted cookie state could be polluted by a malicious HTTP server. If the cookie jar is later reloaded, curl may send injected cookies for arbitrary domains on subsequent requests. CVSS 3.0 is 5.3, with low integrity impact and no stated confidentiality or availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where curl or libcurl persists cookies to a jar file and later reuses that jar across requests, especially when contacting untrusted HTTP servers. Systems not using saved cookie jars are less directly exposed based on the provided description.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not show active exploitation, and KEV is false. Exploitation requires interaction with a malicious HTTP server and later reuse of the poisoned cookie jar. The sources describe arbitrary-domain cookie injection, not remote code execution or data exfiltration.
Researcher notes
Focus validation on cookie jar persistence and cross-request trust boundaries. The issue is categorized as CWE-99 and affects integrity of cookie state. Evidence in the bundle supports curl before 7.51 and vendor-patched packages, but does not provide exploit-in-the-wild confirmation.
Mitigation direction
- Apply vendor-provided curl updates or patched distribution packages.
- Upgrade curl to a version not affected, per the curl advisory.
- Avoid reusing cookie jars after contacting untrusted HTTP servers until patched.
- Review vendor advisories for backported fixes in older package versions.
Validation and detection
- Inventory curl and libcurl versions across servers, containers, and build images.
- Identify jobs or applications that write and later reuse curl cookie jars.
- Confirm installed packages include the CVE-2016-8615 vendor fix.
- Review automation that fetches untrusted HTTP content with cookies enabled.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-99: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2016-8615 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.3 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N3.91.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
5.3MediumVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- RHSA-2018:3558CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2016-8615CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://curl.haxx.se/CVE-2016-8615.patchCVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://curl.haxx.se/docs/adv_20161102A.htmlCVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2016-21CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- RHSA-2018:2486CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- GLSA-201701-47CVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_GENTOO
- [bookkeeper-issues] 20210628 [GitHub] [bookkeeper] padma81 opened a new issue #2746: Security Vulnerabilities in CentOS 7 image, Upgrade image to CentOS 8CVE reference · mailing-list, x_refsource_MLIST
- [bookkeeper-issues] 20210629 [GitHub] [bookkeeper] padma81 opened a new issue #2746: Security Vulnerabilities in CentOS 7 image, Upgrade image to CentOS 8CVE reference · mailing-list, x_refsource_MLIST
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Improper Control of Resource Identifiers ('Resource Injection')
Improper Control of Resource Identifiers ('Resource Injection') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.