CVE-2017-16611: Canonical Ubuntu Linux

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In libXfont before 1.5.4 and libXfont2 before 2.0.3, a local attacker can open (but not read) files on the system as root, triggering tape rewinds, watchdogs, or similar mechanisms that can be triggered by opening files.

Affected products

• Canonical Ubuntu Linux: version 14.04 only; version 16.04 only; version 17.04 only; version 17.10 only
• Debian Debian Linux: version 8.0 only; version 9.0 only
• X Libxfont: from 1.0.0, before 1.5.4 (fixed in 1.5.4); from 2.0.0, before 2.0.3 (fixed in 2.0.3)

Published 2017-12-01. Last modified 2026-06-17.