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CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-5403

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Published: Aug 02, 2016 | Modified: Apr 12, 2025
CVSS 3.x
5.5
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 2.x
4.9 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C
RedHat/V2
2.3 MODERATE
AV:A/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P
RedHat/V3
3.4 MODERATE
CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L
Ubuntu
MEDIUM
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Additional information
NVDhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-5403
CWEhttps://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/400.html

The virtqueue_pop function in hw/virtio/virtio.c in QEMU allows local guest OS administrators to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and QEMU process crash) by submitting requests without waiting for completion.

Weakness

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

Affected Software

NameVendorStart VersionEnd Version
Ubuntu_linuxCanonical12.04 (including)12.04 (including)
Ubuntu_linuxCanonical14.04 (including)14.04 (including)
Ubuntu_linuxCanonical16.04 (including)16.04 (including)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5RedHatkvm-0:83-276.el5_11*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6RedHatqemu-kvm-2:0.12.1.2-2.491.el6_8.3*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7RedHatqemu-kvm-10:1.5.3-105.el7_2.7*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 6RedHatqemu-kvm-rhev-2:0.12.1.2-2.491.el6_8.3*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 7RedHatqemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.3.0-31.el7_2.21*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6.0 (Juno) for RHEL 7RedHatqemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.3.0-31.el7_2.21*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 7.0 (Kilo) for RHEL 7RedHatqemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.3.0-31.el7_2.21*
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8.0 (Liberty)RedHatqemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.3.0-31.el7_2.21*
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9.0 (Mitaka)RedHatqemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.3.0-31.el7_2.21*
RHEV 3.X Hypervisor and Agents for RHEL-6RedHatqemu-kvm-rhev-2:0.12.1.2-2.491.el6_8.3*
RHEV 3.X Hypervisor and Agents for RHEL-7RedHatqemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.3.0-31.el7_2.21*
QemuUbuntudevel*
QemuUbuntuesm-infra-legacy/trusty*
QemuUbuntuesm-infra/xenial*
QemuUbuntutrusty*
QemuUbuntutrusty/esm*
QemuUbuntuwily*
QemuUbuntuxenial*
QemuUbuntuyakkety*
Qemu-kvmUbuntuprecise*
XenUbuntuprecise*
XenUbuntutrusty*
XenUbuntuwily*

Potential Mitigations

  • Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:

  • The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.

  • The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.

References

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