CVE-2023-5088 Qemu: improper ide controller reset can lead to mbr overwrite
A QEMU bug allows guest I/O operations to overwrite the host's boot code, potentially enabling privilege escalation from guest to host.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-5088?
CVE-2023-5088 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Qemu Qemu, published on 3 Nov 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A bug in QEMU could cause a guest I/O operation otherwise addressed to an arbitrary disk offset to be targeted to offset 0 instead (potentially overwriting the VM's boot code). This could be used, for example, by L2 guests with a virtual disk (vdiskL2) stored on a virtual disk of an L1 (vdiskL1) hypervisor to read and/or write data to LBA 0 of vdiskL1, potentially gaining control of L1 at its next reboot.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-5088?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Qemu Qemu, Redhat Enterprise Linux.
How do I fix CVE-2023-5088?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-5088 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-5088 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Qemu Qemu
Sources
Also known as AZL-35596, CLSA-2025-1761214095, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-5088, GHSA-9627-hqj3-f64h, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-5088.