CVE-2021-3527
Description
A flaw was found in the USB redirector device (usb-redir) of QEMU. Small USB packets are combined into a single, large transfer request, to reduce the overhead and improve performance. The combined size of the bulk transfer is used to dynamically allocate a variable length array (VLA) on the stack without proper validation. Since the total size is not bounded, a malicious guest could use this flaw to influence the array length and cause the QEMU process to perform an excessive allocation on the stack, resulting in a denial of service. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.
Statement
This issue affects the version of qemu-kvm as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Advanced Virtualization. A future update may address this flaw.
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).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 3.2 | 5.5 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | High | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Changed | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | Low | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
When allocating resources without limits, an attacker could prevent other systems, applications, or processes from accessing the same type of resource. It can be easy for an attacker to consume many resources by rapidly making many requests or causing larger resources to be used than is needed.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Remy Noel (Blade Group) for reporting this issue.
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