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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2018-20815 json

In QEMU 3.1.0, load_device_tree in device_tree.c calls the deprecated load_image function, which has a buffer overflow risk.

published 2019-05-31 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-13357

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
4.4%
EPSS 4.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 91%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In QEMU 3.1.0, load_device_tree in device_tree.c calls the deprecated load_image function, which has a buffer overflow risk.

Patch / fix

  • qemu Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:3.1+dfsg-7

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-20815

  • qemu Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.0.0+dfsg-2ubuntu1.46
  • qemu Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:2.5+dfsg-5ubuntu10.38
  • qemu Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.13

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-20815

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • qemu-kvm-rhev rhev manager 4.3, RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-33.el7
  • qemu-img-rhev rhev manager 4.3, RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-33.el7
  • qemu-kvm-tools-rhev rhev manager 4.3, RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-33.el7
  • qemu-kvm-common-rhev rhev manager 4.3, RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-33.el7
  • qemu-kvm-rhev rhev manager 4.3, rhev manager 4.2, RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-18.el7_6.7
  • qemu-img-rhev rhev manager 4.3, rhev manager 4.2, RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-18.el7_6.7
  • qemu-kvm-tools-rhev rhev manager 4.3, rhev manager 4.2, RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-18.el7_6.7
  • qemu-kvm-common-rhev rhev manager 4.3, rhev manager 4.2, RHEL 7 10:2.12.0-18.el7_6.7

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:2553RHSA-2019:1968RHSA-2019:1175RHSA-2019:2507RHSA-2019:1667RHSA-2019:1723

  • xen SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 4.2.5_21-45.33.1
  • xen SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2-LTSS, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +2 more 4.7.6_06-43.51.1
  • kvm SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 1.4.2-53.32.1
  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2-LTSS, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +2 more 2.6.2-41.52.1
  • qemu SLE Module for Server Applications 15, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 2.11.2-9.25.1
  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP4, SLED 12 SP4 2.11.2-5.13.1
  • xen SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1-LTSS 4.5.5_28-22.61.1
  • xen SLES 12-LTSS 4.4.4_40-22.80.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:14201-1SUSE-SU-2019:1371-1SUSE-SU-2019:1349-1SUSE-SU-2019:1348-1SUSE-SU-2019:14063-1SUSE-SU-2019:14053-1

  • qemu openSUSE Tumbleweed 6.1.0-32.1
  • qemu openSUSE Leap 15.0 2.11.2-lp150.7.22.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11287-1openSUSE-SU-2019:1405-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-20815 updated cvss 7.0

QEMU: device_tree: heap buffer overflow while loading device tree blob

  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8 (Liberty) qemu-img-rhev, qemu-kvm-rhev, libcacard-rhev, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev, libcacard-devel-rhev, libcacard-tools-rhev, +1 more
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) hivex 1.3.15-6.module+el8.0.0+3075+09be6b65, nbdkit 1.4.2-4.module+el8.0.0+3075+09be6b65, netcf 0.2.8-10.module+el8.0.0+3075+09be6b65, seabios 1.11.1-3.module+el8.0.0+3075+09be6b65, libiscsi 1.18.0-6.module+el8.0.0+3075+09be6b65, libssh2 1.8.0-7.module+el8.0.0+3075+09be6b65.1, +82 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:1175
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) qemu-img-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-tools-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-common-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) qemu-img-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-tools-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-common-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) qemu-img-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-tools-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-common-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) qemu-kvm-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-tools-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4, qemu-kvm-common-ma 2.12.0-18.el7_6.4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:1881
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2507
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:1723
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:1743
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 14.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:1667
  • Red Hat Virtualization 4 Management Agent for RHEL 7 Hosts qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-33.el7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-33.el7, qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.12.0-33.el7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.12.0-33.el7, +2 more Red Hat RHV-M 4.2 qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.7 Red Hat RHV-M 4.3 qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-33.el7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-33.el7, qemu-img-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.7, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.12.0-18.el7_6.7, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.12.0-33.el7, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.12.0-33.el7, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:1968
show 1 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kvm, xen Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, qemu-kvm-tools, qemu-guest-agent, qemu-guest-agent-win32 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, libcacard, qemu-kvm-tools, libcacard-tools, qemu-kvm-common, +1 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

4.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 91% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.