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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2016-4316 Wso2 CVE debrief

CVE-2016-4316 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting issue in WSO2 Carbon 4.4.5 affecting multiple administration-facing JSP endpoints. Because the issue is network-reachable and can influence what a user’s browser renders, organizations running this version should treat it as a real risk to administrative sessions and prioritize remediation planning.

Vendor
Wso2
Product
CVE-2016-4316
CVSS
MEDIUM 6.1
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-02-17
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-02-17
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Security teams, platform administrators, and application owners operating WSO2 Carbon 4.4.5, especially where the affected management pages are reachable by administrators or other authenticated users.

Technical summary

NVD classifies CVE-2016-4316 as CWE-79 (cross-site scripting) in WSO2 Carbon 4.4.5. The CVE description lists multiple vulnerable parameters across several JSP-based endpoints, including identity-mgt/challenges-mgt.jsp, webapp-list/webapp_info.jsp, ndatasource/newdatasource.jsp, viewflows/handlers.jsp, and ndatasource/validateconnection-ajaxprocessor.jsp. NVD assigns CVSS v3.0 6.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N), indicating remote attackability with user interaction required and potential cross-scope impact.

Defensive priority

Medium. Prioritize this higher if the affected WSO2 Carbon interfaces are exposed to broad internal access, shared administrative environments, or any users who may browse untrusted content while authenticated.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Inventory all WSO2 Carbon 4.4.5 deployments and any products embedding that version.
  • Apply vendor remediation or upgrade to a fixed release if available; if immediate upgrade is not possible, restrict access to the affected management JSP endpoints to trusted administrative networks only.
  • Review application and template rendering paths for the listed parameters and ensure untrusted input is HTML-encoded before being returned to the browser.
  • Add monitoring or WAF rules for suspicious script-tag, event-handler, and encoded payloads targeting the affected endpoints, and review logs for anomalous admin requests.
  • Limit administrative exposure with least-privilege access, MFA, and separate privileged browsing workflows to reduce the impact of browser-based attacks.

Evidence notes

The official CVE record shows publication on 2017-02-17. The NVD record identifies WSO2 Carbon 4.4.5 as vulnerable, assigns CWE-79, and lists CVSS v3.0 6.1 with vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N. The NVD entry was modified on 2026-05-13, which is a record update and not the original disclosure date. NVD also references third-party advisories and exploit writeups, but this brief relies on the official record for core facts.

Official resources

Publicly disclosed on 2017-02-17. The NVD record was later modified on 2026-05-13; that update does not change the original CVE publication date.