🛡️ CVE-2016-3697 — runc

🟠 CVSS 8.0 — High ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-269 OSV
8.0
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Privilege Elevation in runc

libcontainer/user/user.go in runC before 0.1.0, as used in Docker before 1.11.2, improperly treats a numeric UID as a potential username, which allows local users to gain privileges via a numeric username in the password file in a container.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

Weakness class

CVE-2016-3697 is classified as CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management. Privileges are assigned, dropped or restored incorrectly, leaving an actor with more access than intended.

Affected software

CVE-2016-3697 is recorded against 1 package.

  • github.com/opencontainers/runc

Timeline and source

Published on 20 December 2021 and last revised on 4 February 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.

References

nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
github.com (Web)
github.com (Web)
github.com (Web)
github.com (Package)
github.com (Web)
lists.opensuse.org (Web)
pkg.go.dev (Web)
rhn.redhat.com (Web)
rhn.redhat.com (Web)
security.gentoo.org (Web)
rhn.redhat.com (Web)
rhn.redhat.com (Web)

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 8.0
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE CWE-269
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2021-12-20
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-02-04
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
github.com/opencontainers/runc — —

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