How severe is CVE-2016-7053?

CVE-2016-7053 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.5, rated high severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.

Is CVE-2016-7053 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 22% (97th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2016-7053?

CVE-2016-7053 primarily affects Openssl. In total, 3 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.

How do I fix CVE-2016-7053?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its high severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.

When was CVE-2016-7053 published?

CVE-2016-7053 was published on 2017-05-04 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2016-7053

CVE-2016-7053 is a high-severity vulnerability in Openssl with a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.5. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score of 22% places it in the 97th percentile, indicating an elevated likelihood of exploitation. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-476.

Key facts

Severity: High (CVSS 3.x base score 7.5)
CVSS v2: 5.0
EPSS exploit prediction: 22% (97th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-476
Affected product: Openssl
Published: 2017-05-04
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

In OpenSSL 1.1.0 before 1.1.0c, applications parsing invalid CMS structures can crash with a NULL pointer dereference. This is caused by a bug in the handling of the ASN.1 CHOICE type in OpenSSL 1.1.0 which can result in a NULL value being passed to the structure callback if an attempt is made to free certain invalid encodings. Only CHOICE structures using a callback which do not handle NULL value are affected.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-7053?: In OpenSSL 1.1.0 before 1.1.0c, applications parsing invalid CMS structures can crash with a NULL pointer dereference. This is caused by a bug in the handling of the ASN.1 CHOICE type in OpenSSL 1.1.0 which can result in a NULL value being passed to the structure callback if an attempt is made to free certain invalid encodings. Only CHOICE structures using a callback which do not handle NULL value are affected.
How severe is CVE-2016-7053?: CVE-2016-7053 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.5, rated high severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
Is CVE-2016-7053 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 22% (97th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2016-7053?: CVE-2016-7053 primarily affects Openssl. In total, 3 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.
How do I fix CVE-2016-7053?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its high severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
When was CVE-2016-7053 published?: CVE-2016-7053 was published on 2017-05-04 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (3)

cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:1.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:1.1.0a:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:1.1.0b:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

More vulnerabilities in Openssl

CVE-2009-3245 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): OpenSSL before 0.9.8m does not check for a NULL return value from bn_wexpand function calls in (1) crypto/bn/bn_div.c,…
CVE-2006-3738 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Buffer overflow in the SSL_get_shared_ciphers function in OpenSSL 0.9.7 before 0.9.7l, 0.9.8 before 0.9.8d, and earlier…
CVE-2026-31789 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): Issue summary: Converting an excessively large OCTET STRING value to a hexadecimal string leads to a heap buffer…
CVE-2022-2274 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): The OpenSSL 3.0.4 release introduced a serious bug in the RSA implementation for X86_64 CPUs supporting the AVX512IFMA…
CVE-2021-3711 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In order to decrypt SM2 encrypted data an application is expected to call the API function EVP_PKEY_decrypt().…
CVE-2016-6309 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): statem/statem.c in OpenSSL 1.1.0a does not consider memory-block movement after a realloc call, which allows remote…

All CVEs affecting Openssl →

Other CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) vulnerabilities

CVE-2022-36648 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The hardware emulation in the of_dpa_cmd_add_l2_flood of rocker device model in QEMU, as used in 7.0.0 and earlier,…
CVE-2020-14500 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Secomea GateManager all versions prior to 9.2c, An attacker can send a negative value and overwrite arbitrary data.
CVE-2010-2495 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The pppol2tp_xmit function in drivers/net/pppol2tp.c in the L2TP implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does…
CVE-2026-46195 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: validate dacloffset before building…
CVE-2026-31657 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: batman-adv: hold claim backbone gateways by…
CVE-2026-31436 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dmaengine: idxd: fix possible wrong descriptor…

Browse all CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) vulnerabilities →