# CVE-2015-3456: Memory corruption in n/a

> Local guest users can trigger out-of-bounds writes in QEMU's floppy controller to crash the guest or execute arbitrary code on the host.

- **Severity:** High 7.7 (`AV:A/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 13 May 2015
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2015-3456, DLA-248-1, DLA-249-1, DSA-3262-1, DSA-3274-1, GHSA-f822-h734-j822, MGASA-2015-0220, MGASA-2015-0228, RHSA-2015:0998, RHSA-2015:0999, RHSA-2015:1000, RHSA-2015:1001, RHSA-2015:1002, RHSA-2015:1003, RHSA-2015:1004, RHSA-2015:1011, RHSA-2015:1031, SUSE-SU-2015:0927-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-3456

## What is CVE-2015-3456?

CVE-2015-3456 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Qemu Qemu, published on 13 May 2015. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Floppy Disk Controller (FDC) in QEMU, as used in Xen 4.5.x and earlier and KVM, allows local guest users to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds write and guest crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via the (1) FD_CMD_READ_ID, (2) FD_CMD_DRIVE_SPECIFICATION_COMMAND, or other unspecified commands, aka VENOM.

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-3456?

It affects 5 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `xen` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client | All versions | 0:3.0.3-146.el5_11 |
| `xen-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client | All versions | 0:3.0.3-146.el5_11 |
| `xen-libs` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client | All versions | 0:3.0.3-146.el5_11 |
| `xen` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server | All versions | 0:3.0.3-146.el5_11 |
| `xen-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server | All versions | 0:3.0.3-146.el5_11 |
| `xen-libs` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server | All versions | 0:3.0.3-146.el5_11 |
| `qemu-guest-agent` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::client | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-img` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::client | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::client | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::client | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::client | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-guest-agent` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::computenode | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-img` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::computenode | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::computenode | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::computenode | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::computenode | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-img-rhev` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::hypervisor | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-rhev` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::hypervisor | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-rhev-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::hypervisor | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-rhev-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::hypervisor | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `rhev-hypervisor6` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::hypervisor | All versions | 0:6.6-20150512.0.el6ev |
| `qemu-guest-agent` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::server | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-img` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::server | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::server | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::server | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::server | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-guest-agent` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::workstation | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-img` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::workstation | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::workstation | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::workstation | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `qemu-kvm-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:6::workstation | All versions | 2:0.12.1.2-2.448.el6_6.3 |
| `libcacard` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |
| `libcacard-devel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |
| `libcacard-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |
| `qemu-img` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |
| `qemu-kvm` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |
| `qemu-kvm-common` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |
| `qemu-kvm-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |
| `qemu-kvm-tools` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |
| `libcacard` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 10:1.5.3-86.el7_1.2 |

Products: Qemu Qemu, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Enterprise Virtualization, Redhat Openstack, Xen Xen.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-3456?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2015-3456 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-3456 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- Experiments related to CVE-2015-3456 (github_poc): https://github.com/vincentbernat/cve-2015-3456
- QEMU - Floppy Disk Controller (FDC) (PoC) (exploitdb)
- A VENOM (CVE-2015-3456) Exploit / PoC written in C. (github_poc): https://github.com/orf53975/poisonfrog

## Other vulnerabilities in Qemu Qemu

- [CVE-2022-36648](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-36648/): Null dereference in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2015-8556](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-8556/): Race condition in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2009-3616](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-3616/): Use after free in n/a (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2019-12928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-12928/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-12929](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-12929/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-3456 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-3456 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Qemu Qemu, published on 13 May 2015. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-3456 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Qemu Qemu. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3456/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3456/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-3456
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-3456
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-3456

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3456/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.