CVE-2019-15538

FAUCET Score

CVE-2019-15538 describes a local Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability in the Linux kernel's XFS filesystem, specifically affecting the xfs_setattr_nonsize function. This flaw, present in versions up to 5.2.9, occurs when a chgrp operation fails due to disk quota exhaustion, leading to a partial wedging of the XFS filesystem because the ILOCK is not properly unlocked. With a CVSS score of 7.5 (High), this vulnerability can be triggered remotely if the XFS filesystem is exported, for example, via NFS, resulting in a complete loss of availability. There is no evidence of active exploitation, publicly available exploit code, or significant community discussion surrounding this CVE.

Impacted Technologies

Vendor	Product	Version(s)	CPE
		>= 4.7, < 4.9.191CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
		>= 4.14, < 4.14.141CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
		>= 4.19, < 4.19.69CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
		>= 5.2, < 5.2.11CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
		5.3CPE matchmatch criteria	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.3:-::::::

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.5HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector

NETWORK

Attack Complexity

LOW

Privileges Required

NONE

User Interaction

NONE

Scope

UNCHANGED

Confidentiality Impact

NONE

Integrity Impact

NONE

Availability Impact

HIGH

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

3.6

CvssVersion

3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score

3.92%

Probability of exploitation in next 30 days

EPSS Percentile

89.2%

Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group

As of 2026-07-24

Model: v2026.06.15

This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0392 is in the 81st percentile among its peer group of 51,466 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (2)

github_advisorypatch availablevia nvd_reference

View patch

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api

Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: kernel-alt-0:4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a

View patch

Vendor Advisories (2)

linuxCVE-2019-15538HIGH

An issue was discovered in xfs_setattr_nonsize in fs/xfs/xfs_iops.c in the Linux kernel through 5.2.9. XFS partially wedges when a chgrp fails on account of being out of disk quota. xfs_setattr_nonsize is failing to unlock the ILOCK after the xfs_qm_vop_chown_reserve call fails. This is primarily a local DoS attack vector, but it might result as well in remote DoS if the XFS filesystem is exported for instance via NFS.

Aug 25, 2019

redhatCVE-2019-15538Moderate

kernel: denial of service in in xfs_setattr_nonsize in fs/xfs/xfs_iops.c

Aug 25, 2019