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CVE-2017-3316 Oracle CVE debrief

CVE-2017-3316 is a high-severity Oracle VM VirtualBox GUI vulnerability affecting VirtualBox versions prior to 5.0.32 and prior to 5.1.14. Oracle’s description says exploitation is easily achievable by a high-privileged attacker with network access via multiple protocols, but successful attacks require human interaction by another person. If exploited, the issue can lead to takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox and may significantly affect additional products.

Vendor
Oracle
Product
CVE-2017-3316
CVSS
HIGH 8.4
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-01-27
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-01-27
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Administrators and security teams running Oracle VM VirtualBox on supported hosts, especially environments where users may open or interact with VirtualBox GUI content and where patching lags behind Oracle CPU updates.

Technical summary

The NVD record maps the issue to CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation) and lists the vulnerable Oracle VM VirtualBox GUI component. NVD cites affected versions as 5.0.30 and 5.1.12 within the broader Oracle description of versions prior to 5.0.32 and prior to 5.1.14. The CVSS v3.0 vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H, indicating network exposure, high privileges required, required user interaction, and potential impact beyond the product boundary.

Defensive priority

High. The combination of high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact with user interaction and privileged attacker requirements makes this a strong patch-priority issue for any organization still running affected VirtualBox releases.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade Oracle VM VirtualBox to a fixed version at or above the vendor-patched releases referenced in Oracle's CPU advisory.
  • Validate whether any host systems still run VirtualBox versions earlier than 5.0.32 or 5.1.14 and prioritize those systems for remediation.
  • Restrict access to VirtualBox management and GUI workflows to trusted administrative users only.
  • Review host-user interaction paths that could expose the GUI component to untrusted content or remote influence.
  • Track Oracle CPU advisories and corresponding platform package updates to ensure patched VirtualBox builds are actually deployed.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based on the supplied NVD record and linked Oracle CPU January 2017 advisory reference. The supplied corpus identifies the affected component as Oracle VM VirtualBox GUI, the vulnerability class as CWE-20, and the CVSS v3.0 vector as AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H. Official references include the CVE record, NVD detail page, and Oracle vendor advisory; no exploit details were used.

Official resources

The CVE was published on 2017-01-27 and later modified on 2026-05-13 in the supplied NVD record. Oracle’s CPU January 2017 advisory is the vendor reference cited by NVD.