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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2016-6485 Magento CVE debrief

CVE-2016-6485 is a cryptographic weakness in Magento 2’s encryption component where the initialization vector is generated with PHP rand instead of a cryptographically secure source. That can weaken confidentiality protections and make the IV easier to guess, reducing the effectiveness of encrypted data protection.

Vendor
Magento
Product
Magento2
CVSS
HIGH 7.5
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-03-01
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-03-01
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Magento 2 operators, application security teams, and developers responsible for encryption, session handling, or protection of sensitive customer and merchant data should prioritize this issue.

Technical summary

NVD classifies the issue as CWE-327 and maps it to Magento 2 with CVSS 3.0 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N. The NVD reference set points to two oss-security mailing list advisories and a Magento GitHub pull request, indicating the issue was publicly discussed and remediated in the project’s codebase. The core problem is non-cryptographic randomness in IV construction, which can undermine cryptographic protection mechanisms.

Defensive priority

High. This is a network-reachable, unauthenticated weakness with high confidentiality impact, so it should be prioritized for any internet-facing Magento 2 deployment or any system protecting sensitive data with the affected encryption path.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Review the Magento remediation referenced by the linked GitHub pull request and apply the vendor’s fix or a version that includes it.
  • Verify whether your deployed Magento 2 build uses the affected encryption code path in Framework/Encryption/Crypt.php.
  • Replace any cryptographic use of PHP rand with a cryptographically secure random source in custom code or extensions.
  • If sensitive data may have been protected with the affected logic, reassess exposure and rotate or re-encrypt data as appropriate.
  • Audit for related weaknesses in custom or third-party Magento extensions that handle IV generation or encryption parameters.

Evidence notes

Supplied source data shows CVE-2016-6485 was published by CVE/NVD on 2017-03-01 and last modified on 2026-05-13. NVD references include two oss-security mailing list posts dated 2016-07-19 and 2016-07-27, plus https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/15017. The NVD CPE criteria mark Magento 2 as vulnerable and the listed CVSS vector is CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2016-6485 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-6485

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

  • CVE-2016-6485 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-6485

    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.