CVE-2016-9915 [Medium] | Information Disclosure in Qemu

Memory leak in hw/9pfs/9p-handle.c in QEMU (aka Quick Emulator) allows local privileged guest OS users to cause a denial of service (host memory consumption and possibly QEMU process crash) by leveraging a missing cleanup operation in the handle backend.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.06%	0.44%	+0.38%
2	2023-03-07	1.03%	0.06%	-0.97%
3	2022-02-04	—	1.03%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.06%

0.44%

+0.38%

2023-03-07

1.03%

0.06%

-0.97%

2022-02-04

—

1.03%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
6.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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:C) Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius. 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.	2.0	4.0	[email protected]
4.9	2.0	MEDIUM	`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C` 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:C) Complete availability impact.	3.9	6.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

6.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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:C): Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
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.

2.0

4.0

[email protected]

4.9

2.0

MEDIUM

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C 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:C): Complete availability impact.

3.9

6.9

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-9915

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2016-9915 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-2016-9915
`gentoo`	normal	CVE-2016-9915: 1 GLSA(s) (201701-49), 1 atom(s) (app-emulation/qemu); latest impact normal.	https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2016-9915
`redhat`	low	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-9915
`suse`	low	CVE-2016-9915 severity low: SUSE including 27 source package names (kvm, qemu, …), 166 product×package rows across 19 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1, … (19 product lines)): Known Not Affected 166.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-9915/
`ubuntu`	low	CVE-2016-9915 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (qemu, qemu-kvm), 28 status rows across 14 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, precise, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): DNE 13, not-affected 9, released 3, needed 2, ignored 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-9915

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-9915

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
qemu	qemu	<= 2.7.1	cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu::::::::
qemu	qemu	2.8.0	cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:2.8.0:rc0::::::
qemu	qemu	2.8.0	cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:2.8.0:rc1::::::
debian	debian_linux	8.0	cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:::::::*

References for CVE-2016-9915

URL	Tags
http://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=971f406b77a6eb84e0ad27dcc416b663765aee30
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/12/06/11	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/12/08/7	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94729	Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/09/msg00007.html	Third Party Advisory
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2016-11/msg03278.html	Patch Vendor Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-49	Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2016-9915

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-9915

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-9915

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-9915

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-9915

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-9915

References for CVE-2016-9915