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CVE-2017-5579

22
FAUCET Score

CVE-2017-5579 describes a memory leak vulnerability in the serial_exit_core function within QEMU's hw/char/serial.c, affecting various QEMU and Debian Linux distributions. This flaw allows a local, privileged guest OS user to trigger a denial of service on the host by repeatedly unplugging devices, leading to host memory exhaustion and a QEMU process crash. With a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium), it requires local access and low privileges, but has a high impact on availability. There is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 2.8.1.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.9.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:2.9.0:rc0:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.9.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:2.9.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.9.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:2.9.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.9.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:2.9.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

6.5MEDIUM

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

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
NONE
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
2.0
Impact Score
4.0
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.40%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
32.6%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0040 is in the 88th percentile among its peer group of 15,938 CVEs.

Social Chatter

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

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (13)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6.0 (Juno) for RHEL 7Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.9.0-10.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 7.0 (Kilo) for RHEL 7Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.9.0-10.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10.0 (Newton)Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.9.0-10.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11.0 (Ocata)Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.9.0-10.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8.0 (Liberty)Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.9.0-10.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9.0 (Mitaka)Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.9.0-10.el7
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Virtualization 4 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev-10:2.9.0-14.el7
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: kvm
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: xen
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: qemu-kvm
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: qemu-kvm
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 6Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 7Fixed in: qemu-kvm-rhev

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2017-5579Low

Qemu: serial: host memory leakage 16550A UART emulation

Jan 11, 2017

References

git.qemu-project.org
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017:2392
Third Party Advisory
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017:2408
Third Party Advisory
lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2018/09/msg00007.html
Third Party Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201702-28
Third Party Advisory
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2017/01/24/8
Mailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2017/01/25/3
Mailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
securityfocus.com / bid/95780
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry