CVE-2015-5261

Heap-based buffer overflow in SPICE before 0.12.6 allows guest OS users to read and write to arbitrary memory locations on the host via guest QXL commands related to surface creation.

Published: 2016-06-07 Last update: 2026-05-06 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2015-5261 is rated Low Risk (37.7/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.09%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2015-5261

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-12-01 0.05% 0.09% +0.05%
2 2025-09-25 0.09% 0.05% -0.05%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.09% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2015-5261

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 5.2 [email protected]
3.6 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 3.9 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2015-5261

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-5261

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2015-5261 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (spice), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-5261
gentoo normal CVE-2015-5261: 1 GLSA(s) (201606-05), 1 atom(s) (app-emulation/spice); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2015-5261
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-5261
suse high CVE-2015-5261 severity important: SUSE including 39 source package names (libspice-server-devel, libspice-server-devel-0.12.4-5.1, …), 109 product×package rows across 67 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Enterprise Storage 5, … (67 product lines)): Known Not Affected 57, Fixed 52. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-5261/
ubuntu medium CVE-2015-5261 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (spice), 8 status rows across 8 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): released 6, ignored 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-5261

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-5261

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 15.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_hpc_node 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_hpc_node:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 6.7.z cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_eus:6.7.z:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_hpc_node 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_hpc_node:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_hpc_node_eus 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_hpc_node_eus:7.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_eus:7.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
spice_project spice <= 0.12.5 cpe:2.3:a:spice_project:spice:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2015-5261

cvelogic Threat Intelligence