A flaw was found in the grub2-set-bootflag utility of grub2.

published 2019-11-29 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-5981

cvss: 5.9; version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.3%; EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 25%
public exploits: 0; none known

A flaw was found in the grub2-set-bootflag utility of grub2. A local attacker could run this utility under resource pressure (for example by setting RLIMIT), causing grub2 configuration files to be truncated and leaving the system unbootable on subsequent reboots.

Patch / fix

distros 1

grub2 RHEL 8 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1
grub2-pc RHEL 8 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1
grub2-tools RHEL 8 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1
grub2-common RHEL 8 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1
grub2-efi-x64 RHEL 8 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1
grub2-ppc64le RHEL 8 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1
grub2-efi-aa64 RHEL 8 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1
grub2-efi-ia32 RHEL 8 1:2.02-78.el8_1.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:0335

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-2019-14865 updated 2025-11-21 cvss 5.9

grub2: grub2-set-bootflag utility causes grubenv corruption rendering the system non-bootable

Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) grub2 2.02-78.el8_1.1, grub2-pc 2.02-78.el8_1.1, grub2-tools 2.02-78.el8_1.1, grub2-common 2.02-78.el8_1.1, grub2-efi-x64 2.02-78.el8_1.1, grub2-ppc64le 2.02-78.el8_1.1, +13 more
fixed: vendor fix “Remove the "grub-set-bootflag" from the system, by manually the deleting the binary file. Note: On subsequent updates of the "grub2-tools-minimal" rpm, the file will be re-installed.” RHSA-2020:0335

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

0.32% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 25% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.0	5.9	CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD	3.1	5.9	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD	2.0	4.9	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Affected products

[UNKNOWN] grub2

Classification

Weakness

CWE-267 Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions

References

access.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2020:0335
vendor-advisory, third-party-advisory
seclists.org /oss-sec/2019/q4/101
mailing-list, third-party-advisory
bugzilla.redhat.com /show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-14865
issue-tracking, third-party-advisory
openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2024/02/06/3
third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2019-14865
NVD CVE-2019-14865

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.

Summary