CVE-2016-3861
LibUtils in Android 4.x before 4.4.4, 5.0.x before 5.0.2, 5.1.x before 5.1.1, 6.x before 2016-09-01, and 7.0 before 2016-09-01 mishandles…
- 7.8HighCVSS base score
- 8.3%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 5.0% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
LibUtils in Android 4.x before 4.4.4, 5.0.x before 5.0.2, 5.1.x before 5.1.1, 6.x before 2016-09-01, and 7.0 before 2016-09-01 mishandles conversions between Unicode character encodings with different encoding widths, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (heap-based buffer overflow) via a crafted file, aka internal bug 29250543.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list an Exploit-DB entry for it. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit.
Show the exploits2
Exploit-DB1 entry
- Google Android - libutils UTF16 to UTF8 Conversion Heap Buffer Overflow (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 40354remote, androidpublished 8 Sept 2016Verified
References tagged exploit1 reference
- 40354 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By google_android
- 6 months later
· 6 months later
Published
- 8 years later
· 8 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.0 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 8.3% · top 5.0% of all CVEs (10 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
8
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/native/+/1f4b49e64adf4623eefda503bca61e253597b9bf (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- http://source.android.com/security/bulletin/2016-09-01.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/av/+/3944c65637dfed14a5a895685edfa4bacaf9f76e (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/ecf5fd58a8f50362ce9e8d4245a33d56f29f142b (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- 1036763 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
- 92811 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/866dc26ad4a98cc835d075b627326e7d7e52ffa1 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- 40354 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2016-4874 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2016-3861)Record last updated .