# CVE-2024-3446: Qemu: virtio: dma reentrancy issue leads to double free vulnerability

> A malicious privileged guest user can exploit a double free in QEMU virtio devices to crash the host or execute arbitrary code.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Apr 2024
- **Updated:** 2 May 2025
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-3446, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-3446, GHSA-rgvf-j3x5-6277, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-3446

## What is CVE-2024-3446?

CVE-2024-3446 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, published on 9 Apr 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A double free vulnerability was found in QEMU virtio devices (virtio-gpu, virtio-serial-bus, virtio-crypto), where the mem_reentrancy_guard flag insufficiently protects against DMA reentrancy issues. This issue could allow a malicious privileged guest user to crash the QEMU process on the host, resulting in a denial of service or allow arbitrary code execution within the context of the QEMU process on the host.

Weakness: CWE-415 (Double Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-3446?


## How do I fix CVE-2024-3446?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-3446 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-3446 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-3446 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-3446 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, published on 9 Apr 2024. 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-2024-3446 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. 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-2024-3446/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-3446/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-3446
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-3446
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-3446

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-3446/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.