CVE-2019-14865 Denial of service in grub2
Medium 5.9
Published
Updated
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-14865 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2019-14865 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in [UNKNOWN] grub2, published on 29 Nov 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-14865 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Affected product: [UNKNOWN] grub2. 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-2019-14865/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-14865/index.md)
A local attacker can cause system unbootability by truncating GRUB configuration files via resource pressure attacks.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2019-14865?
CVE-2019-14865 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in [UNKNOWN] grub2, published on 29 Nov 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
A flaw was found in the grub2-set-bootflag utility of grub2. A local attacker could run this utility under resource pressure (for example by setting RLIMIT), causing grub2 configuration files to be truncated and leaving the system unbootable on subsequent reboots.
Weakness: CWE-267
Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-14865?
It affects 1 product.
Linux distribution packages (25)
grub2 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-common Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-aa64 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-aa64-cdboot Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-aa64-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-ia32 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-ia32-cdboot Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-ia32-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-x64 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-x64-cdboot Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-efi-x64-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-pc Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-pc-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-ppc64le Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-ppc64le-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-tools Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-tools-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-tools-efi Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-tools-efi-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-tools-extra Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-tools-extra-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-tools-minimal Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
grub2-tools-minimal-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1 |
Products include Gnu Grub2.
How do I fix CVE-2019-14865?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2019-14865 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-14865 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in [UNKNOWN] grub2
- CVE-2024-56737 Memory corruption in GRUB2
- CVE-2022-28733 Integer underflow in grub_net_recv_ip4_packets
- CVE-2022-28734 Out-of-bounds write when handling split HTTP headers
- CVE-2025-61662 Grub2: missing unregister call for gettext command may lead to use-after-free
- CVE-2024-45782 Grub2: fs/hfs: strcpy() using the volume name (fs/hfs.c:382)
Sources
Also known as GHSA-5c3m-78cg-3wpv, RHSA-2020:0335.