CVE-2019-14865

A flaw was found in the grub2-set-bootflag utility of grub2. A local attacker could run this utility under resource pressure (for example by setting RLIMIT), causing grub2 configuration files to be truncated and leaving the system unbootable on subsequent reboots.

Published: 2019-11-29 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-14865 is rated Low Risk (32.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.33%). 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-2019-14865

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 2026-06-15 0.04% 0.33% +0.29%
2 2026-02-26 0.06% 0.04% -0.02%
3 2026-01-14 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-14865

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 1.5 4.0 [email protected]
5.9 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 1.5 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]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-14865

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-14865

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2019-14865 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (grub2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-14865
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-14865
suse medium CVE-2019-14865 severity moderate: SUSE including 22 source package names (grub2, grub2-arm64-efi, …), 137 product×package rows across 25 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 3.0, SUSE Container as a Service Platform 2.0, … (25 product lines)): Known Not Affected 124, Fixed 13. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-14865/
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-14865 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (grub2), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 6. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-14865

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-14865

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu grub2 — cpe:2.3:a:gnu:grub2:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-14865

cvelogic Threat Intelligence