# CVE-2019-18424: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Attackers with PCI pass-through access can corrupt host memory via DMA during device deassignment, leading to host OS privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 31 Oct 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2019-18424, DEBIAN-CVE-2019-18424, GHSA-3q68-jh6h-39cm, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-18424

## What is CVE-2019-18424?

CVE-2019-18424 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 31 Oct 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing attackers to gain host OS privileges via DMA in a situation where an untrusted domain has access to a physical device. This occurs because passed through PCI devices may corrupt host memory after deassignment. When a PCI device is assigned to an untrusted domain, it is possible for that domain to program the device to DMA to an arbitrary address. The IOMMU is used to protect the host from malicious DMA by making sure that the device addresses can only target memory assigned to the guest. However, when the guest domain is torn down, or the device is deassigned, the device is assigned back to dom0, thus allowing any in-flight DMA to potentially target critical host data. An untrusted domain with access to a physical device can DMA into host memory, leading to privilege escalation. Only systems where guests are given direct access to physical devices capable of DMA (PCI pass-through) are vulnerable. Systems which do not use PCI pass-through are not vulnerable.

Weakness: CWE-78 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-18424?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Opensuse Leap, Xen Xen.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-18424?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2019-18424 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-18424 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-2019-18424 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-18424 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 31 Oct 2019. 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-2019-18424 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-2019-18424/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-18424/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-18424
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-18424
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-18424

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-18424/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.