# CVE-2015-6815: Denial of service in QEMU

> Attackers can cause a denial of service via infinite loop and guest crash in QEMU's network packet processing.

- **Severity:** Low 3.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **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:** 31 Jan 2020
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2015-6815, GHSA-m4j6-cfvh-8j5q, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-6815

## What is CVE-2015-6815?

CVE-2015-6815 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 31 Jan 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The process_tx_desc function in hw/net/e1000.c in QEMU before 2.4.0.1 does not properly process transmit descriptor data when sending a network packet, which allows attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and guest crash) via unspecified vectors.

Weakness: CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-6815?

It affects 11 products.


Products: Arista Eos, Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Debuginfo, Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop, Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit, Qemu Qemu, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Openstack, Xen Xen.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-6815?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2015-6815 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-6815 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [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-2015-6815 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-6815 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 31 Jan 2020. 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-2015-6815 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu Linux. 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-2015-6815/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6815/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-6815
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-6815
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-6815

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-6815/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.