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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2020-28916 json

hw/net/e1000e_core.c in QEMU 5.0.0 has an infinite loop via an RX descriptor with a NULL buffer address.

published 5y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2020-21307

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 51%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

hw/net/e1000e_core.c in QEMU 5.0.0 has an infinite loop via an RX descriptor with a NULL buffer address.

Patch / fix

  • qemu Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:5.2+dfsg-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28916

  • qemu Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.35
  • qemu Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1:4.2-3ubuntu6.12

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-28916

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • SLOF RHEL 8 20191022-3.git899d9883.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418
  • hivex RHEL 8 1.3.18-20.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418
  • netcf RHEL 8 0.2.8-12.module+el8.1.0+4066+0f1aadab
  • libnbd RHEL 8 1.2.2-1.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc
  • nbdkit RHEL 8 1.16.2-4.module+el8.3.0+6922+fd575af8
  • libvirt RHEL 8 6.0.0-35.module+el8.4.0+10230+7a9b21e4
  • nbdfuse RHEL 8 1.2.2-1.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc
  • seabios RHEL 8 1.13.0-2.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:1762

  • qemu SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP1-LTSS, SLES 15 SP1-BCL +6 more 3.1.1.1-9.24.3
  • qemu SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15-LTSS +1 more 2.11.2-9.43.1
  • qemu SLE Module for Server Applications 15 SP2, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP2, SLE Micro 5.0 4.2.1-11.16.3
  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 3.1.1.1-48.2
  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP4-LTSS, OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 +1 more 2.11.2-5.29.1
  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3-LTSS, SLES 12 SP3-BCL +3 more 2.9.1-6.47.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:1245-1SUSE-SU-2021:1244-1SUSE-SU-2021:1243-1SUSE-SU-2021:1242-1SUSE-SU-2021:1241-1SUSE-SU-2021:1240-1

  • qemu openSUSE Leap 15.2 4.2.1-lp152.9.12.1
  • qemu-testsuite openSUSE Leap 15.2 4.2.1-lp152.9.12.1
  • qemu-linux-user openSUSE Leap 15.2 4.2.1-lp152.9.12.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:0600-1

  • hivex AlmaLinux 8 1.3.18-20.module_el8.3.0+2048+e7a0a3ea
  • netcf AlmaLinux 8 0.2.8-12.module_el8.5.0+2608+72063365
  • netcf AlmaLinux 8 0.2.8-12.module_el8.6.0+2880+7d9e3703
  • netcf AlmaLinux 8 0.2.8-12.module_el8.3.0+2048+e7a0a3ea
  • libnbd AlmaLinux 8 1.2.2-1.module_el8.5.0+2608+72063365
  • libnbd AlmaLinux 8 1.2.2-1.module_el8.3.0+2048+e7a0a3ea
  • nbdkit AlmaLinux 8 1.16.2-4.module_el8.5.0+2608+72063365
  • nbdfuse AlmaLinux 8 1.2.2-1.module_el8.3.0+2048+e7a0a3ea

almalinux advisories ALSA-2021:1762

  • hivex Rocky Linux 8 1.3.18-20.module+el8.4.0+534+4680a14e
  • netcf Rocky Linux 8 0.2.8-12.module+el8.7.0+1084+97b81f61
  • netcf Rocky Linux 8 0.2.8-12.module+el8.4.0+534+4680a14e
  • netcf Rocky Linux 8 0.2.8-12.module+el8.6.0+847+b490afdd
  • libnbd Rocky Linux 8 1.2.2-1.module+el8.4.0+534+4680a14e
  • nbdkit Rocky Linux 8 1.16.2-4.module+el8.4.0+534+4680a14e
  • libvirt Rocky Linux 8 6.0.0-35.module+el8.4.0+534+4680a14e
  • seabios Rocky Linux 8 1.13.0-2.module+el8.4.0+534+4680a14e

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2021:1762

  • qemu Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +6 more 5.1.0-r1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2020-28916

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Is CVE-2020-28916 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

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-2020-28916 updated cvss 2.5

QEMU: e1000e: infinite loop scenario in case of null packet descriptor

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 qemu-kvm-rhev
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Advanced Virtualization qemu-img, qemu-kvm, qemu-kiwi, qemu-kvm-core, qemu-kvm-tests, qemu-kvm-common, +9 more
    affected: no fix available, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10 (Newton) qemu-img-rhev, qemu-kvm-rhev, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev, qemu-kvm-common-rhev Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13 (Queens) qemu-img-rhev, qemu-kvm-rhev, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev, qemu-kvm-common-rhev
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) libnbd 1.2.2-1.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc, netcf 0.2.8-12.module+el8.1.0+4066+0f1aadab, hivex 1.3.18-20.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418, nbdfuse 1.2.2-1.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc, seabios 1.13.0-2.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc, libiscsi 1.18.0-8.module+el8.1.0+4066+0f1aadab, +39 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) libnbd 1.2.2-1.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc, netcf 0.2.8-12.module+el8.1.0+4066+0f1aadab, hivex 1.3.18-20.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418, nbdfuse 1.2.2-1.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc, nbdkit 1.16.2-4.module+el8.3.0+6922+fd575af8, seabios 1.13.0-2.module+el8.3.0+7353+9de0a3cc, +88 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1762
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kvm, xen Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, qemu-kvm-tools, qemu-guest-agent, qemu-guest-agent-win32 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, libcacard, qemu-img-ma, qemu-kvm-ma, qemu-kvm-tools, +5 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Advanced Virtualization qemu-img, qemu-kvm, qemu-kiwi, qemu-kvm-core, qemu-kvm-tests, qemu-kvm-common, +9 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, qemu-kvm-core, qemu-kvm-tools, qemu-pr-helper, qemu-kvm-common, +16 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

0.66% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 51% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • lists.nongnu.org https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2020-11/msg03185.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-835 Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition

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.