Medium
Security advisory
The read_boot function in boot.c in dosfstools before 4.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a crafted filesystem, which triggers a heap-based buffer overflow in the (1) read_fat function or an out-of-bounds heap read in (2) get_fat function.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2016-4804
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 31 Oct 2026, 12:10 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
The read_boot function in boot.c in dosfstools before 4.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a crafted filesystem, which triggers a heap-based buffer overflow in the (1) read_fat function or an out-of-bounds heap read in (2) get_fat function.
osv:CVE-2016-4804
Complete source record
{
"id": "c30f8f95045c2322318225e1daae75056c8e8b6b523714559c80c11c1d9973b6",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-4804",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2016-4804",
"summary": "The read_boot function in boot.c in dosfstools before 4.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a crafted filesystem, which triggers a heap-based buffer overflow in the (1) read_fat function or an out-of-bounds heap read in (2) get_fat function.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2016-4804",
"products": [],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2016-4804",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2016-4804"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
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"repo": "https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
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"introduced": "0"
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{
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},
{
"fixed": "e8eff147e9da1185f9afd5b25948153a3b97cf52"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:dosfstools_project:dosfstools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "3.0.28"
}
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"source": "CPE_RANGE"
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{
"range": [
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"source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
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}
}
],
"versions": [
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"v3.0.27",
"v3.0.26",
"v3.0.25",
"v3.0.24",
"v3.0.23",
"v3.0.22",
"v3.0.21",
"v3.0.20",
"v3.0.19",
"v3.0.18",
"v3.0.17",
"v3.0.16",
"v3.0.15",
"v3.0.14",
"v3.0.13",
"v3.0.12",
"v3.0.11",
"v3.0.10",
"v3.0.9",
"v3.0.8",
"v3.0.7",
"v3.0.6",
"v3.0.5",
"v3.0.4",
"v3.0.3",
"v3.0.2",
"v3.0.1",
"v3.0.0",
"v2.11"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2016-4804.json",
"vanir_signatures": [
{
"id": "CVE-2016-4804-09e237fb",
"digest": {
"threshold": 0.9,
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},
"source": "https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/commit/e8eff147e9da1185f9afd5b25948153a3b97cf52",
"target": {
"file": "src/fsck.fat.h"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Line",
"signature_version": "v1"
},
{
"id": "CVE-2016-4804-3c4fdeb9",
"digest": {
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"source": "https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/commit/e8eff147e9da1185f9afd5b25948153a3b97cf52",
"target": {
"file": "src/boot.c"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Line",
"signature_version": "v1"
},
{
"id": "CVE-2016-4804-967aa689",
"digest": {
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"function_hash": "77701543821825306139960602256486180703"
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"source": "https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/commit/e8eff147e9da1185f9afd5b25948153a3b97cf52",
"target": {
"file": "src/boot.c",
"function": "dump_boot"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Function",
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},
{
"id": "CVE-2016-4804-f2fc88f6",
"digest": {
"length": 4476,
"function_hash": "157353839392065048035445465538445571550"
},
"source": "https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/commit/e8eff147e9da1185f9afd5b25948153a3b97cf52",
"target": {
"file": "src/boot.c",
"function": "read_boot"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Function",
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],
"vanir_signatures_modified": "2026-10-20T13:15:39Z"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-20T13:15:39.208907071Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00028.html",
"https://blog.fuzzing-project.org/44-dosfstools-fsck.vfat-Several-invalid-memory-accesses.html",
"https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/commit/e8eff147e9da1185f9afd5b25948153a3b97cf52",
"https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/issues/25",
"https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools/issues/26"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"cpes": [
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"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "canonical:ubuntu_linux",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "12.04"
},
{
"last_affected": "12.04"
},
{
"introduced": "14.04"
},
{
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},
{
"introduced": "15.10"
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{
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},
{
"introduced": "16.04"
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{
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}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
},
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:42.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "opensuse:leap",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "42.1"
},
{
"last_affected": "42.1"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
},
{
"cpes": [
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],
"vendor_product": "opensuse:opensuse",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "13.2"
},
{
"last_affected": "13.2"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
]
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2016-4804",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 387411,
"published_at": "2016-06-03T14:59:06.263+00:00"
}