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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2016-9679 Citrix CVE debrief

CVE-2016-9679 is a critical memory-corruption issue in Citrix Provisioning Services. According to the NVD record, versions before 7.12 are affected, with multiple 7.x releases explicitly listed as vulnerable. The flaw can let an attacker execute arbitrary code by overwriting a function pointer, and the CVSS vector indicates network access with no privileges or user interaction required.

Vendor
Citrix
Product
Provisioning Services
CVSS
CRITICAL 9.8
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-01-18
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-01-18
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Administrators and security teams responsible for Citrix Provisioning Services, especially environments running affected 7.x releases, should prioritize this issue. Vulnerability management, virtualization, and endpoint/platform teams should also confirm whether any exposed Provisioning Services instances are in scope.

Technical summary

The NVD maps this issue to CWE-119 and assigns a CVSS 3.0 vector of AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. The vulnerability description states that an attacker can execute arbitrary code by overwriting a function pointer. NVD lists affected Citrix Provisioning Services releases 7.0, 7.1, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, and 7.11, while the description also states the issue affects versions before 7.12.

Defensive priority

Critical. The combination of network attackability, no privileges, no user interaction, and high confidentiality/integrity/availability impact makes this a high-priority remediation item for any exposed or widely deployed Citrix Provisioning Services installation.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade Citrix Provisioning Services to a fixed release at or beyond 7.12.
  • Inventory all Citrix Provisioning Services instances and confirm whether any affected 7.x versions are still deployed.
  • Treat any internet- or broadly network-reachable Provisioning Services systems as urgent remediation candidates until patched.
  • Review vendor guidance in the Citrix advisory for product-specific mitigation and upgrade instructions.
  • Validate remediation by re-checking installed versions after maintenance and updating vulnerability-management records.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based on the official NVD record and the cited Citrix vendor advisory. The CVE description explicitly states arbitrary code execution via function pointer overwrite, and the NVD metadata provides the affected CPE versions, CVSS vector, and CWE mapping. No KEV listing was provided for this CVE in the supplied corpus.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2016-9679 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-9679

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2016-9679 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-9679

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

Supplemental references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.