CVE-2016-5397 — thrift
HIGHCVE-2016-5397 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) CWE-77 vulnerability in github.com/apache/thrift. A fix is available for github.com/apache/thrift — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache Thrift Go Library Command Injection
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2016-5397 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/apache/thriftReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The Apache Thrift Go client library exposed the potential during code generation for command injection due to using an external formatting tool. Affected Apache Thrift 0.9.3 and older, Fixed in Apache Thrift 0.10.0.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/apache/thrift | all versions | 0.10.0go get github.com/apache/thrift@v0.10.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/apache/thrift, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/apache/thrift to 0.10.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2016-5397 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2016-5397 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2016-5397. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
libthrift is a library used by OpenDaylight which is shipped with Red Hat OpenStack. Whilst the version of the library used contains the vulnerable code it is not used by OpenDaylight and hence not exposed. JBoss fuse 6.3 ships libthrift via insight-activemq fabric-8 profile, however the vulnerable code is not used by…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6.4.8 | libthrift | RHSA-2019:3140 |
| Red Hat JBoss Fuse 7 | camel | RHSA-2018:2669 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2016-5397 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2016-5397 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.