CVE-2015-8744 [Medium] | Input Validation Bypass in Qemu

QEMU (aka Quick Emulator) built with a VMWARE VMXNET3 paravirtual NIC emulator support is vulnerable to crash issue. It occurs when a guest sends a Layer-2 packet smaller than 22 bytes. A privileged (CAP_SYS_RAWIO) guest user could use this flaw to crash the QEMU process instance resulting in DoS.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2023-03-07	1.10%	0.06%	-1.04%
2	2022-02-04	—	1.10%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2023-03-07

1.10%

0.06%

-1.04%

2022-02-04

—

1.10%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
5.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H` 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:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.8	3.6	[email protected]
2.1	2.0	LOW	`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P` 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:N) No confidentiality impact. Integrity impact (I:N) No integrity impact. Availability impact (A:P) Partial availability impact.	3.9	2.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

5.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.8

3.6

[email protected]

2.1

2.0

LOW

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P 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:N): No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N): No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P): Partial availability impact.

3.9

2.9

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-8744

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2015-8744 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (qemu), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-8744
`gentoo`	normal	CVE-2015-8744: 1 GLSA(s) (201602-01), 1 atom(s) (app-emulation/qemu); latest impact normal.	https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2015-8744
`redhat`	low	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-8744
`suse`	low	CVE-2015-8744 severity low: SUSE including 875 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 1204 product×package rows across 66 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4, … (66 product lines)): Fixed 922, Known Affected 157, Known Not Affected 125.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-8744/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2015-8744 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (qemu, qemu-kvm), 10 status rows across 5 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, vivid, wily): DNE 4, needs-triage 2, released 2, ignored 1, not-affected 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-8744

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-8744

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
qemu	qemu	<= 2.4.1	cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu::::::::
debian	debian_linux	8.0	cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:::::::*

References for CVE-2015-8744

URL	Tags
http://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=a7278b36fcab9af469563bd7b
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3471	Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/01/04/3	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/01/04/6	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/79821	Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034576	Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1270871	Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201602-01	Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2015-8744

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2015-8744

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2015-8744

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2015-8744

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-8744

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-8744

References for CVE-2015-8744