# CVE-2015-5745: Memory corruption in QEMU

> A buffer overflow in QEMU allows guest users to crash the QEMU process via a crafted virtio control message, causing denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 23 Jan 2020
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2015-5745, GHSA-w8v5-w883-3mh3, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-5745

## What is CVE-2015-5745?

CVE-2015-5745 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 23 Jan 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Buffer overflow in the send_control_msg function in hw/char/virtio-serial-bus.c in QEMU before 2.4.0 allows guest users to cause a denial of service (QEMU process crash) via a crafted virtio control message.

Weakness: CWE-120 (Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-5745?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Arista Eos, Fedoraproject Fedora, Qemu Qemu.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-5745?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2015-5745 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-5745 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Fedoraproject Fedora

- [CVE-2026-7473](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-7473/): Arista Extensible Operating System Incomplete Comparison with Missing Factors (medium 6.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-8236](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-8236/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2020-10188](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10188/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-18017](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-18017/): Use after free in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-14491](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-14491/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-5745 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-5745 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 23 Jan 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-5745 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Fedoraproject Fedora. 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-2015-5745/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5745/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-5745
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-5745
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-5745

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5745/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.