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CVE-2016-5238

14
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-5238 is a denial-of-service vulnerability affecting QEMU, specifically within the get_cmd function in hw/scsi/esp.c. It allows a local guest OS administrator to crash the QEMU process through an out-of-bounds write when reading from the information transfer buffer in non-DMA mode. Rated as Medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability requires high privileges (PR:H) and local access (AV:L) to exploit, leading to a high impact on availability (A:H) but no impact on confidentiality or integrity. The attack complexity is low (AC:L). There is no evidence of active exploitation, and no public exploit code is available in Metasploit, Nuclei, or ExploitDB. Community discussion and media coverage for this CVE are minimal, indicating a low level of public attention.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 2.6.2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
12.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
14.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
16.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

4.4MEDIUM

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

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
HIGH
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
NONE
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
0.8
Impact Score
3.6
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.42%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
34.5%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0042 is in the 84th percentile among its peer group of 3,720 CVEs.

Social Chatter

No social media mentions found for this CVE.

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

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2016-5238Moderate

Qemu: scsi: esp: OOB write when using non-DMA mode in get_cmd

May 31, 2016

References

bugzilla.redhat.com / show_bug.cgi
Issue TrackingThird Party Advisory
lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2018/11/msg00038.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
lists.gnu.org / archive/html/qemu-devel/2016-05/msg05691.html
Mailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
lists.gnu.org / archive/html/qemu-devel/2016-06/msg00150.html
Mailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201609-01
Third Party Advisory
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2016/06/02/2
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2016/06/02/9
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
securityfocus.com / bid/90995
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
ubuntu.com / usn/USN-3047-1
Third Party Advisory
ubuntu.com / usn/USN-3047-2
Third Party Advisory