CVE-2014-3640

Description

A NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the way QEMU handled UDP packets with a source port and address of 0 when QEMU's user networking was in use. A local guest user could use this flaw to crash the guest.

Statement

This issue did not affect the kvm package as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this issue as having Low security impact. Future qemu-kvm updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 may address this issue. For additional information, refer to the Issue Severity Classification: https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert:Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

CVSS v2 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score4.42.1N/A
Attack VectorLocalLocalN/A
Access ComplexityMediumLowN/A
AuthenticationSingleNoneN/A
Confidentiality ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Availability ImpactCompletePartialN/A

Vector

Red Hat: AV:L/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C

NVD: AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

NULL pointer dereferences usually result in the failure of the process unless exception handling (on some platforms) is available and implemented. Even when exception handling is being used, it can still be very difficult to return the software to a safe state of operation.

Integrity,Confidentiality

Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Read Memory; Modify Memory

In rare circumstances, when NULL is equivalent to the 0x0 memory address and privileged code can access it, then writing or reading memory is possible, which may lead to code execution.

Acknowledgements

Red Hat would like to thank Stephane Duverger (Airbus) and Xavier Mehrenberger for reporting this issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

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