Is CVE-2017-16879 in the CISA KEV catalog?

No. CVE-2017-16879 is not currently on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list.

What is the CVSS severity of CVE-2017-16879?

CVE-2017-16879 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH).

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2017-16879?

CVE-2017-16879 has an EPSS score of 2.38% (82th percentile), estimating the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How do I fix CVE-2017-16879?

Upgrade ncurses on debian 11 to 6.0+20171125-1 or later. Fixes are available for 5 affected products.

CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2017-16879

HIGHEPSS 82th pctl

7.8

CVSS v3

NVD

Description

Stack-based buffer overflow in the _nc_write_entry function in tinfo/write_entry.c in ncurses 6.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted terminfo file, as demonstrated by tic.

CWE-787Out-of-bounds Write

How to fix

Remediation Available

ncursesDebian

Fixed in:6.0+20171125-1CVE-2017-16879

libncurses5Ubuntu

Fixed in:5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm2USN-5477-1

Fixed in:6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm2USN-5477-1

libtinfo5Ubuntu

Fixed in:5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm2USN-5477-1

Fixed in:6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm2USN-5477-1

ncursesUbuntu

Fixed in:5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm2USN-5477-1

Fixed in:6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm2USN-5477-1

ncurses-binUbuntu

Fixed in:5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm2USN-5477-1

Fixed in:6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm2USN-5477-1

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorLocal

Attack ComplexityLow

Privileges RequiredNone

User InteractionRequired

ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityHigh

IntegrityHigh

AvailabilityHigh

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploit Intelligence

2.38%probability of exploitation in 30 days

82ndpercentile

Elevated risk: more likely to be exploited than 82% of all known CVEs.

References

Vendor Advisory1

invisible-island.net

Third-Party Advisory3

Other references2

Related Vulnerabilities

Other CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all

CVE	Severity	CVSS	EPSS	Exploited	Fix
CVE-2025-22457	Critical	9.0	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2025-0282	Critical	9.0	100%	KEV + Ransom	-
CVE-2015-3113	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV	Fix
CVE-2021-20038	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	-
CVE-2023-4863	High	8.8	100%	KEV	Fix
CVE-2020-16040	Medium	6.5	100%	-	Fix

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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-05-13.