# CVE-2016-7422: Null dereference in n/a

> Local guest OS administrators can crash the QEMU process via a NULL pointer dereference in virtqueue_map_desc, causing denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 10 Dec 2016
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2016-7422, GHSA-fp4p-m87h-5fx8

## What is CVE-2016-7422?

CVE-2016-7422 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Opensuse Leap, published on 10 Dec 2016. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The virtqueue_map_desc function in hw/virtio/virtio.c in QEMU (aka Quick Emulator) allows local guest OS administrators to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and QEMU process crash) via a large I/O descriptor buffer length value.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-7422?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Opensuse Leap, Qemu Qemu, Redhat Openstack, Redhat Virtualization.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-7422?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2016-7422 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-7422 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Opensuse Leap

- [CVE-2015-4902](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-4902/): Oracle Java SE Integrity Check (medium 5.3, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2017-14804](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-14804/): package builds could use directory traversal to write outside of target area (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2019-20787](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-20787/): Teeworlds before 0.7.4 has an integer overflow when computing a tilemap size. (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-8341](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8341/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-6438](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-6438/): Other in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-7422 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-7422 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Opensuse Leap, published on 10 Dec 2016. 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-2016-7422 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Opensuse Leap. 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-2016-7422/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7422/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-7422
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-7422
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-7422

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7422/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.