# CVE-2016-8910: Denial of service in n/a

> Local guest administrators can cause a denial of service in QEMU via an infinite loop in the RTL8139 network driver due to missing ring descriptor limits.

- **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:** 4 Nov 2016
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2016-8910, DEBIAN-CVE-2016-8910, GHSA-7pc8-95p7-87cw, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-8910

## What is CVE-2016-8910?

CVE-2016-8910 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 4 Nov 2016. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The rtl8139_cplus_transmit function in hw/net/rtl8139.c in QEMU (aka Quick Emulator) allows local guest OS administrators to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and CPU consumption) by leveraging failure to limit the ring descriptor count.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-8910?

It affects 5 products.


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

## How do I fix CVE-2016-8910?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2016-8910 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-8910 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-8910 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-8910 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 4 Nov 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-2016-8910 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian 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-2016-8910/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8910/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-8910
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-8910
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-8910

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8910/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.