Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2021-20257

An infinite loop flaw was found in the e1000 NIC emulator of the QEMU. This issue occurs while processing transmits (tx) descriptors in process_tx_desc if various descriptor fields are initialized with invalid values. This flaw allows a guest to consume CPU cycles on the host, resulting in a denial of service. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 6.5, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 8 products from qemu, from fedoraproject, from redhat and 5 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2022, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.

Published

2022-03-16T15:15:09.983

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:46:13.570

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

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

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

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Secondary
CWE-835
Type: Secondary
CWE-835

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	qemu	qemu	< 6.2.0	Yes
Operating System	fedoraproject	fedora	33	Yes
Application	redhat	openstack_platform	10.0	Yes
Application	redhat	openstack_platform	13.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	6.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	8.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	8.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux_for_ibm_z_systems	8.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux_for_power_little_endian	8.0	Yes
Application	redhat	codeready_linux_builder	-	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	8.0	No
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux_for_ibm_z_systems	8.0	No
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux_for_power_little_endian	8.0	No
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	10.0	Yes

References

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1930087 Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://github.com/qemu/qemu/commit/3de46e6fc489c52c9431a8a832ad8170a7569bd8 Patch, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/09/msg00008.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2021-02/msg07428.html Mailing List, Patch, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-27 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20220425-0003/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/02/25/2 Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1930087 Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/qemu/qemu/commit/3de46e6fc489c52c9431a8a832ad8170a7569bd8 Patch, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/09/msg00008.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2021-02/msg07428.html Mailing List, Patch, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-27 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20220425-0003/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/02/25/2 Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

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.