# CVE-2019-14851: Denial of service in nbdkit

> A remote attacker can cause a denial of service in nbdkit by sending a specific sequence of commands that triggers an assertion failure.

- **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:** 18 Mar 2021
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2019-14851, GHSA-hj75-x8cx-fm4w, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-14851

## What is CVE-2019-14851?

CVE-2019-14851 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in nbdkit, published on 18 Mar 2021. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A denial of service vulnerability was discovered in nbdkit. A client issuing a certain sequence of commands could possibly trigger an assertion failure, causing nbdkit to exit. This issue only affected nbdkit versions 1.12.7, 1.14.1, and 1.15.1.

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-14851?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Nbdkit Project Nbdkit.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-14851?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2019-14851 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-14851 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in nbdkit

- [CVE-2025-47711](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-47711/): Nbdkit: nbdkit-server: off-by-one error when processing block status may lead to a denial of service (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2025-47712](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-47712/): Nbd: nbdkit: integer overflow triggers an assertion resulting in denial of service (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2019-14850](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-14850/): Denial of service in nbdkit (low 3.7)
- [CVE-2021-3716](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-3716/): Other in nbdkit (low 3.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-14851 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-14851 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in nbdkit, published on 18 Mar 2021. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-14851 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: nbdkit. 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-2019-14851/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-14851/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-14851
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-14851
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-14851

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-14851/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.