Vulnerability Database

393,601

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2016-1255 — debian / postgresql-common

Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')

The pg_ctlcluster script in postgresql-common package in Debian wheezy before 134wheezy5, in Debian jessie before 165+deb8u2, in Debian unstable before 178, in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS before 129ubuntu1.2, in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS before 154ubuntu1.1, in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS before 173ubuntu0.1, in Ubuntu 17.04 before 179ubuntu0.1, and in Ubuntu 17.10 before 184ubuntu1.1 allows local users to gain root privileges via a symlink attack on a logfile in /var/log/postgresql.

  • Published: Dec 5, 2017
  • Updated: Oct 5, 2026
  • CVE: CVE-2016-1255
  • Severity: High
  • Exploit:
  • CISA KEV:

CVSS v2:

  • Severity: High
  • Score: 7.2
  • AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CWEs:

Software Affected versions
debian / postgresql-common = 1
debian / postgresql-common = 2
debian / postgresql-common = 3
debian / postgresql-common = 4
debian / postgresql-common = 5
debian / postgresql-common = 6
debian / postgresql-common = 7
debian / postgresql-common = 8
debian / postgresql-common = 9
debian / postgresql-common = 10
debian / postgresql-common = 11
debian / postgresql-common = 12
debian / postgresql-common = 13
debian / postgresql-common = 14
debian / postgresql-common = 15
debian / postgresql-common = 16
debian / postgresql-common = 17
debian / postgresql-common = 18
debian / postgresql-common = 19
debian / postgresql-common = 20
debian / postgresql-common = 21
debian / postgresql-common = 22
debian / postgresql-common = 23
debian / postgresql-common = 24
debian / postgresql-common = 25
debian / postgresql-common = 26
debian / postgresql-common = 27
debian / postgresql-common = 28
debian / postgresql-common = 29
debian / postgresql-common = 30
debian / postgresql-common = 31
debian / postgresql-common = 32
debian / postgresql-common = 33
debian / postgresql-common = 34
debian / postgresql-common = 35
debian / postgresql-common = 36
debian / postgresql-common = 37
debian / postgresql-common = 38
debian / postgresql-common = 39
debian / postgresql-common = 40
debian / postgresql-common = 41
debian / postgresql-common = 42
debian / postgresql-common = 43
debian / postgresql-common = 44
debian / postgresql-common = 45
debian / postgresql-common = 46
debian / postgresql-common = 47
debian / postgresql-common = 48
debian / postgresql-common = 49
debian / postgresql-common = 50
debian / postgresql-common = 51
debian / postgresql-common = 52
debian / postgresql-common = 53
debian / postgresql-common = 54
debian / postgresql-common = 55
debian / postgresql-common = 56
debian / postgresql-common = 57
debian / postgresql-common = 58
debian / postgresql-common = 59
debian / postgresql-common = 60
debian / postgresql-common = 61
debian / postgresql-common = 62
debian / postgresql-common = 63
debian / postgresql-common = 64
debian / postgresql-common = 65
debian / postgresql-common = 66
debian / postgresql-common = 67
debian / postgresql-common = 68
debian / postgresql-common = 69
debian / postgresql-common = 70
debian / postgresql-common = 71
debian / postgresql-common = 72
debian / postgresql-common = 73
debian / postgresql-common = 74
debian / postgresql-common = 75
debian / postgresql-common = 76
debian / postgresql-common = 77
debian / postgresql-common = 78
debian / postgresql-common = 79
debian / postgresql-common = 80
debian / postgresql-common = 81
debian / postgresql-common = 82
debian / postgresql-common = 83
debian / postgresql-common = 84
debian / postgresql-common = 85
debian / postgresql-common = 86
debian / postgresql-common = 87
debian / postgresql-common = 88
debian / postgresql-common = 89
debian / postgresql-common = 90
debian / postgresql-common = 91
debian / postgresql-common = 92
debian / postgresql-common = 93
debian / postgresql-common = 94
debian / postgresql-common = 95
debian / postgresql-common = 96
debian / postgresql-common = 97
debian / postgresql-common = 98
debian / postgresql-common = 99
debian / postgresql-common = 100
debian / postgresql-common = 101
debian / postgresql-common = 102
debian / postgresql-common = 103
debian / postgresql-common = 104
debian / postgresql-common = 105
debian / postgresql-common = 106
debian / postgresql-common = 107
debian / postgresql-common = 108
debian / postgresql-common = 109
debian / postgresql-common = 110
debian / postgresql-common = 111
debian / postgresql-common = 112
debian / postgresql-common = 113
debian / postgresql-common = 114
debian / postgresql-common = 115
debian / postgresql-common = 116
debian / postgresql-common = 117
debian / postgresql-common = 118
debian / postgresql-common = 119
debian / postgresql-common = 120
debian / postgresql-common = 121
debian / postgresql-common = 122
debian / postgresql-common = 123
debian / postgresql-common = 124
debian / postgresql-common = 125
debian / postgresql-common = 126
debian / postgresql-common = 127
debian / postgresql-common = 128
debian / postgresql-common = 129
debian / postgresql-common = 130
debian / postgresql-common = 131
debian / postgresql-common = 132
debian / postgresql-common = 133
debian / postgresql-common = 134
debian / postgresql-common = 135
debian / postgresql-common = 136
debian / postgresql-common = 137
debian / postgresql-common = 138
debian / postgresql-common = 139
debian / postgresql-common = 140
debian / postgresql-common = 141
debian / postgresql-common = 142
debian / postgresql-common = 143
debian / postgresql-common = 144
debian / postgresql-common = 145
debian / postgresql-common = 146
debian / postgresql-common = 147
debian / postgresql-common = 148
debian / postgresql-common = 149
debian / postgresql-common = 150
debian / postgresql-common = 151
debian / postgresql-common = 152
debian / postgresql-common = 153
debian / postgresql-common = 154
debian / postgresql-common = 155
debian / postgresql-common = 156
debian / postgresql-common = 157
debian / postgresql-common = 158
debian / postgresql-common = 159
debian / postgresql-common = 160
debian / postgresql-common = 161
debian / postgresql-common = 162
debian / postgresql-common = 163
debian / postgresql-common = 164
debian / postgresql-common = 122ubuntu1
debian / postgresql-common = 129ubuntu1
debian / postgresql-common = 153bzr1
debian / postgresql-common = 154ubuntu1
debian / postgresql-common = 169git1
debian / postgresql-common = 170
debian / postgresql-common = 171
debian / postgresql-common = 172
debian / postgresql-common = 172ubuntu1
debian / postgresql-common = 173
debian / postgresql-common = 176+git1
debian / postgresql-common = 177git1
debian / postgresql-common = 177ubuntu1
debian / postgresql-common = 178
debian / postgresql-common = 179
debian / postgresql-common = 181
debian / postgresql-common = 181ubuntu1
debian / postgresql-common = 183
debian / postgresql-common = 184
debian / postgresql-common = 184ubuntu1

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.