Privilege escalation in QEMU

1) Heap-based buffer overflow

EUVDB-ID: #VU79747

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 7.7 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2015-7504

CWE-ID: CWE-122 - Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a malicious guest to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists due to a boundary error in the pcnet_receive() function in hw/net/pcnet.c in QEMU. A malicious guest can use a series of packets in loopback mode to trigger a heap-based buffer overflow and execute arbitrary code on the target system.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

QEMU: All versions

External links

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2015-11/msg06342.html
http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-162.html
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2015/11/30/2
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201604-03
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201602-01
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034268
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/78227
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3471
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3470
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3469
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2696.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2695.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2694.html

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to trick the victim to open a a specially crafted file.

The attacker would have to login to the system and perform certain actions in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.