CVE-2016-6835

Description

From CVE.org

The vmxnet_tx_pkt_parse_headers function in hw/net/vmxnet_tx_pkt.c in QEMU (aka Quick Emulator) allows local guest OS administrators to cause a denial of service (buffer over-read) by leveraging failure to check IP header length.

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 v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score4.66N/A
Attack VectorAdjacent NetworkLocalN/A
Attack ComplexityLowLowN/A
Privileges RequiredLowHighN/A
User InteractionNoneNoneN/A
ScopeUnchangedChangedN/A
ConfidentialityNoneNoneN/A
Integrity ImpactLowNoneN/A
Availability ImpactLowHighN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)

Buffer overflows generally lead to crashes. Other attacks leading to lack of availability are possible, including putting the program into an infinite loop.

Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control

Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Bypass Protection Mechanism; Modify Memory

Buffer overflows often can be used to execute arbitrary code, which is usually outside the scope of a program's implicit security policy. Besides important user data, heap-based overflows can be used to overwrite function pointers that may be living in memory, pointing it to the attacker's code. Even in applications that do not explicitly use function pointers, the run-time will usually leave many in memory. For example, object methods in C++ are generally implemented using function pointers. Even in C programs, there is often a global offset table used by the underlying runtime.

Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control,Other

Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Bypass Protection Mechanism; Other

When the consequence is arbitrary code execution, this can often be used to subvert any other security service.

Acknowledgements

Red Hat would like to thank Li Qiang (Qihoo 360 Inc.) for reporting this issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

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