CVE-2016-2197
Description
A NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the QEMU emulator built with IDE AHCI emulation support. The flaw occurs when unmapping the Frame Information Structure(FIS) & Command List Block(CLB) entries. A privileged user inside a guest could use this flaw to crash the QEMU process instance (denial of service).
Statement
This has been rated as having Low security impact and is not currently planned to be addressed in future updates. For additional information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle: https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/.
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 v2 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 2.3 | 2.1 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Adjacent Network | Local | N/A |
| Access Complexity | Medium | Low | N/A |
| Authentication | Single | None | N/A |
| Confidentiality Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | Partial | Partial | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: AV:A/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P
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 Zuozhi Fzz (Alibaba Inc.) for reporting this issue.
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