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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2017-15124 json

VNC server implementation in Quick Emulator (QEMU) 2.11.0 and older was found to be vulnerable to an unbounded memory allocation issue, as…

published 2018-01-09 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-6585

cvss
7.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.8%
EPSS 2.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 86%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

VNC server implementation in Quick Emulator (QEMU) 2.11.0 and older was found to be vulnerable to an unbounded memory allocation issue, as it did not throttle the framebuffer updates sent to its client. If the client did not consume these updates, VNC server allocates growing memory to hold onto this data. A malicious remote VNC client could use this flaw to cause DoS to the server host.

Patch / fix

  • qemu Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:2.12~rc3+dfsg-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-15124

  • qemu-kvm-ma RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-18.el7
  • qemu-img-ma RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-18.el7
  • qemu-kvm-tools-ma RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-18.el7
  • qemu-kvm-common-ma RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-18.el7
  • qemu-kvm-rhev RHEL 7, openstack 12, openstack 11 +3 more 10:2.10.0-21.el7
  • qemu-img-rhev RHEL 7, openstack 12, openstack 11 +3 more 10:2.10.0-21.el7
  • qemu-kvm-tools-rhev RHEL 7, openstack 12, openstack 11 +3 more 10:2.10.0-21.el7
  • qemu-kvm-common-rhev RHEL 7, openstack 12, openstack 11 +3 more 10:2.10.0-21.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2018:3062RHSA-2018:1113RHSA-2018:1104RHSA-2018:0816

  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 2.6.2-41.37.1
  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3, SLED 12 SP3 2.9.1-6.12.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:0831-1SUSE-SU-2018:0762-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2017-15124 updated cvss 3.5

Qemu: memory exhaustion through framebuffer update request message in VNC server

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kvm, xen
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, qemu-kvm-tools, qemu-guest-agent, qemu-guest-agent-win32
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6 (Juno) qemu-kvm-rhev Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 7 (Kilo) qemu-img-rhev, qemu-kvm-rhev, libcacard-rhev, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev, libcacard-devel-rhev, libcacard-tools-rhev, +1 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) qemu-img 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm-tools 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm-common 1.5.3-156.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) qemu-img 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm-tools 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm-common 1.5.3-156.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:0816
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) qemu-img-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-common-ma 2.12.0-18.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) qemu-img-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-common-ma 2.12.0-18.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3062
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) qemu-img 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-img-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-tools 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm-common 1.5.3-156.el7, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:0816
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) qemu-kvm-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-ma 2.12.0-18.el7, qemu-kvm-common-ma 2.12.0-18.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:3062
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) qemu-img 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm-tools 1.5.3-156.el7, qemu-kvm-common 1.5.3-156.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:0816
show 2 more
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8.0 (Liberty) qemu-img-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7 Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7 Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7 Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7 Red Hat OpenStack Platform 12.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:1113
  • Red Hat Virtualization 4 Management Agent for RHEL 7 Hosts qemu-img-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.10.0-21.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2018:1104

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

2.84% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 86% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.8 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Affected products

  • QEMU Qemu

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.