Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2016-2538


Multiple integer overflows in the USB Net device emulator (hw/usb/dev-network.c) in QEMU before 2.5.1 allow local guest OS administrators to cause a denial of service (QEMU process crash) or obtain sensitive host memory information via a remote NDIS control message packet that is mishandled in the (1) rndis_query_response, (2) rndis_set_response, or (3) usb_net_handle_dataout function.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.1, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from qemu organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

First disclosed in 2016, this vulnerability was reported during a period defined by widespread IoT adoption challenges, mobile security concerns, and the emergence of advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques. Contemporary mitigation strategies focused on secure development practices and third-party component vetting.


Published

2016-06-16T18:59:06.093

Last Modified

2025-04-12T10:46:40.837

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.0: 7.1 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P

  • Access Vector: LOCAL
  • Access Complexity: LOW
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
  • Integrity Impact: NONE
  • Availability Impact: PARTIAL
Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

4.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-189

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application qemu qemu ≤ 2.5.0 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For qemu's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.