CVE-2016-9923 Use after free in n/a

Medium 5.5 Published 23 Dec 2016 Updated 6 Aug 2024

A guest user can crash the QEMU host process via a use-after-free flaw during device hotplug operations, causing denial of service.

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

What is CVE-2016-9923?

CVE-2016-9923 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Qemu Qemu, published on 23 Dec 2016. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Quick Emulator (Qemu) built with the 'chardev' backend support is vulnerable to a use after free issue. It could occur while hotplug and unplugging the device in the guest. A guest user/process could use this flaw to crash a Qemu process on the host resulting in DoS.

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-9923?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Qemu Qemu.

How do I fix CVE-2016-9923?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2016-9923 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-9923 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Qemu Qemu vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2016-9923, GHSA-chcq-mx34-rm7h, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-9923.