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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2019-15538 json

An issue was discovered in xfs_setattr_nonsize in fs/xfs/xfs_iops.c in the Linux kernel through 5.2.9.

published 2019-08-25 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-6521

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.9%
EPSS 3.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 90%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An issue was discovered in xfs_setattr_nonsize in fs/xfs/xfs_iops.c in the Linux kernel through 5.2.9. XFS partially wedges when a chgrp fails on account of being out of disk quota. xfs_setattr_nonsize is failing to unlock the ILOCK after the xfs_qm_vop_chown_reserve call fails. This is primarily a local DoS attack vector, but it might result as well in remote DoS if the XFS filesystem is exported for instance via NFS.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.9.191, 4.14.141, 4.19.69, 5.2.11
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.2.17-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-15538

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-65.74
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1051.53
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1046.49
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 5.0.0-1020.20~18.04.1
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-65.74~16.04.1
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 5.0.0-31.33~18.04.1
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1047.47
  • linux-oem Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1057.66

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-15538

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

  • kernel-alt RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a
  • perf RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a
  • kernel RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a
  • python-perf RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a
  • kernel-tools RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a
  • kernel-tools-libs RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a
  • kernel-abi-whitelists RHEL 7 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:2104

  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP4 4.12.14-8.6.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP4 4.12.14-8.6.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP4 4.12.14-8.6.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP4 4.12.14-8.6.1
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.11.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.11.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.11.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.11.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:2756-1SUSE-SU-2019:2738-1SUSE-SU-2019:2658-1SUSE-SU-2019:2651-1SUSE-SU-2019:2648-1SUSE-SU-2019:2424-1

  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.16.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.16.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.16.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.16.1
  • kernel-vanilla openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.16.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.16.1
  • kernel-obs-build openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.16.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.0 4.12.14-lp150.12.73.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2019:2181-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2173-1

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-2019-15538 updated cvss 7.5

kernel: denial of service in in xfs_setattr_nonsize in fs/xfs/xfs_iops.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 Kernel-rt
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) perf 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a, kernel 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a, kernel-alt 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a, python-perf 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a, kernel-tools 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a, kernel-tools-libs 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.14.0-115.21.2.el7a
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:2104
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 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

3.92% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 90% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.8 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Technology feeds

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.