# CVE-2020-16092: Denial of service in n/a

> A malicious guest can trigger an assertion failure in QEMU network processing, causing a denial of service on the host.

- **Severity:** Low 3.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 11 Aug 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-16092, GHSA-ffj7-8wcx-cprg, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-16092

## What is CVE-2020-16092?

CVE-2020-16092 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 11 Aug 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In QEMU through 5.0.0, an assertion failure can occur in the network packet processing. This issue affects the e1000e and vmxnet3 network devices. A malicious guest user/process could use this flaw to abort the QEMU process on the host, resulting in a denial of service condition in net_tx_pkt_add_raw_fragment in hw/net/net_tx_pkt.c.

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-16092?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Opensuse Leap, Qemu Qemu.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-16092?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2020-16092 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-16092 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2020-11651](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11651/): SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-7247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7247/): OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-16928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-16928/): Exim Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-6789](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6789/): Exim Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-2590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2590/): Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-16092 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-16092 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 11 Aug 2020. 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-2020-16092 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu 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-2020-16092/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-16092/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-16092
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-16092
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-16092

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-16092/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.