CVE-2016-9841: Critical severity Apple tvOS vulnerability

Published Dec 7, 2016
·
Updated

An old inffast.c optimization turns out to not be optimal anymore with modern compilers, and furthermore was not compliant with the C standard, for which decrementing a pointer before its allocated memory is undefined.

External References:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/images/0/09/Zlib-report.pdf https://docs.google.com/document/d/10i1KZS5so8xDqH2rplRa2xet0tyTvvJlLbQQmZIUIKE/edit#heading=h.t13tvnx4loq7

Upstream patch:

https://github.com/madler/zlib/commit/9aaec95e82117c1cb0f9624264c3618fc380cecb

CVE assignment:

http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2016/q4/602

Other sources

inffast.c in zlib 1.2.8 might allow context-dependent attackers to have unspecified impact by leveraging improper pointer arithmetic

Microsoft

zlib. Multiple issues were addressed by updating to version 1.2.11.

Credit

CVE-2016-9840, CVE-2016-9841, CVE-2016-9842, CVE-2016-9843, CVE-2016-9840, CVE-2016-9841, CVE-2016-9842, CVE-2016-9843

Affected Software

75 affected componentsFixes available
redhat/zlib<1.2.9
1.2.9
Apple tvOS<11
11
Apple macOS High Sierra<10.13
10.13
Apple WatchOS<4
4
Apple iOS<11
11
zlib zlib>=1.2.0<1.2.9
openSUSE Leap=42.1
openSUSE Leap=42.2
openSUSE openSUSE=13.2
Debian Debian Linux=8.0
Canonical Ubuntu Linux=16.04
Canonical Ubuntu Linux=18.04
Oracle Database Server=18c
Oracle JDK=1.6.0-update161
Oracle JDK=1.7.0-update151
Oracle JDK=1.8.0-update144
Oracle JRE=1.6.0-update161
Oracle JRE=1.7.0-update151
Oracle JRE=1.8.0-update144
Oracle MySQL>=5.5.0<=5.5.61
Oracle MySQL>=5.6.0<=5.6.41
Oracle MySQL>=5.7.0<=5.7.23
Oracle MySQL>=8.0.0<=8.0.12
redhat Satellite=5.8
redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop=6.0
redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop=7.0
redhat Enterprise Linux Eus=7.4
redhat Enterprise Linux Eus=7.5
redhat Enterprise Linux Server=6.0
redhat Enterprise Linux Server=7.0
redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation=6.0
redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation=7.0
Apple iPhone OS<11
Apple iOS and macOS>=10.0.0<10.13.0
Apple tvOS<11.0
Apple WatchOS<4
NetApp Active Iq Unified Manager Windows>=7.3
NetApp Active Iq Unified Manager Vmware Vsphere>=9.5
NetApp Cloud Backup
NetApp E-series Santricity Management Vmware Sra
NetApp E-series Santricity Management Vmware Vasa
NetApp E-series Santricity Management Vmware Vcenter
NetApp E-Series SANtricity OS Controller>=11.0.0<=11.70.1
NetApp E-series Santricity Storage Manager
NetApp E-series Santricity Web Services Web Services Proxy
NetApp OnCommand Balance
NetApp OnCommand Insight
NetApp Oncommand Performance Manager Vmware Vsphere
NetApp Oncommand Shift
NetApp Oncommand Unified Manager Vsphere<=7.1
NetApp Oncommand Unified Manager Windows<=7.1
NetApp Oncommand Unified Manager 7-mode
NetApp OnCommand Workflow Automation
NetApp Snapmanager Oracle
NetApp Snapmanager Sap
NetApp Solidfire
NetApp Steelstore Cloud Integrated Storage
NetApp Storage Replication Adapter For Clustered Data Ontap Vmware Vsphere
NetApp Symantec Netbackup
NetApp Vasa Provider For Clustered Data Ontap>=7.2
NetApp Virtual Storage Console Vmware Vsphere
NetApp Hci Storage Node
Nodejs Node.js>=4.0.0<=4.1.2
Nodejs Node.js>=4.2.0<4.8.2
Nodejs Node.js>=6.0.0<=6.8.1
Nodejs Node.js>=6.9.0<6.10.2
Nodejs Node.js>=7.0.0<7.6.0
F5 BIG-IP=17.5.0, >=17.1.0<=17.1.2
17.5.117.1.3
F5 BIG-IP>=16.1.0<=16.1.6
F5 BIG-IP>=15.1.0<=15.1.10
F5 APM Clients>=7.2.4<=7.2.5.1
7.2.5.2
F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management>=8.2.0<=8.4.0
Microsoft azl3 fltk 1.3.8-1
debian/rsync
3.2.3-4+deb11u13.2.3-4+deb11u33.2.7-1+deb12u43.2.7-1+deb12u23.4.1+ds1-5+deb13u13.4.1+ds1-7
debian/zlib
1:1.2.11.dfsg-2+deb11u21:1.2.13.dfsg-11:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-11:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-3

Event History

May 23, 2017
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:56 AM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:56 AM
Description
Jan 11, 2024
Data Sourced
via Launchpad·10:23 PM
Description
Feb 21, 2025
Advisory Published
via F5·05:10 AM
Data Sourced
via F5·05:10 AM
DescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software
Mar 14, 2025
Data Sourced
via Microsoft·07:00 AM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Data Sourced
via Microsoft·07:00 AM
Affected Software
Updated
via Microsoft·07:00 AM
DescriptionSeverity
Dec 5, 2025
Data Sourced
via Ubuntu·04:50 PM
RemedyDescriptionSeverityAffected Software
Feb 19, 2026
Data Sourced
via Debian·07:18 PM
DescriptionAffected Software

Parent advisories

This vulnerability appears in the following advisories.

Peer vulnerabilities

Found alongside the following vulnerabilities.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2016-9841?

CVE-2016-9841 has been classified as a moderate severity vulnerability due to its compliance issues with the C standard.

2

How do I fix CVE-2016-9841?

To fix CVE-2016-9841, update to a version of affected software that is compliant, such as zlib 1.2.10 or later.

3

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-9841?

CVE-2016-9841 affects several versions of software including zlib versions prior to 1.2.10 and Apple products running macOS versions up to 10.13.

4

Who is affected by CVE-2016-9841?

Users of Apple iOS, macOS, watchOS, and various Linux distributions with vulnerable zlib versions are affected by CVE-2016-9841.

5

What are the potential implications of CVE-2016-9841?

The implications of CVE-2016-9841 may include instability or unexpected behavior in applications utilizing the vulnerable zlib library.

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