CVE-2025-14876 Qemu-kvm: unbounded allocation in virtio-crypto
A malicious guest OS can trigger uncontrolled memory allocation in QEMU's virtio-crypto device, causing a host denial of service.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-14876?
CVE-2025-14876 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 18 Feb 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A flaw was found in the virtio-crypto device of QEMU. A malicious guest operating system can exploit a missing length limit in the AKCIPHER path, leading to uncontrolled memory allocation. This can result in a denial of service (DoS) on the host system by causing the QEMU process to terminate unexpectedly.
Weakness: CWE-770
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-14876?
Linux distribution packages (7)
qemu SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | All versions | 7.1.0-150500.49.39.2 |
qemu SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 | All versions | 9.2.4-150700.3.17.1 |
qemu SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP7 | All versions | 9.2.4-150700.3.17.1 |
qemu-linux-user SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP7 | All versions | 9.2.4-150700.3.17.1 |
qemu SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 | All versions | 7.1.0-150500.49.39.2 |
qemu SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 | All versions | 9.2.4-150700.3.17.1 |
qemu openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 10.2.1-1.1 |
How do I fix CVE-2025-14876?
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-2025-14876 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-14876 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-78174, BELL-CVE-2025-14876, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-14876, GHSA-gq25-pccv-6q8j, OESA-2026-1988, OESA-2026-1989 and 7 more.