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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2016-9603 json

A heap buffer overflow flaw was found in QEMU's Cirrus CLGD 54xx VGA emulator's VNC display driver support before 2.9; the issue could occu…

published 2018-07-27 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-10407

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, CNA
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

A heap buffer overflow flaw was found in QEMU's Cirrus CLGD 54xx VGA emulator's VNC display driver support before 2.9; the issue could occur when a VNC client attempted to update its display after a VGA operation is performed by a guest. A privileged user/process inside a guest could use this flaw to crash the QEMU process or, potentially, execute arbitrary code on the host with privileges of the QEMU process.

Patch / fix

  • qemu qemu 2.9.0
  • xen Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.4.0-1
  • qemu Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:2.8+dfsg-4

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-9603

  • xen Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.11
  • qemu Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 2.0.0+dfsg-2ubuntu1.33
  • qemu Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 1:2.5+dfsg-5ubuntu10.11

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-9603

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 RHEL 6, openstack 5 2:0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
  • qemu-img-rhev RHEL 6, openstack 5 2:0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
  • qemu-kvm-rhev-tools RHEL 6, openstack 5 2:0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
  • qemu-kvm RHEL 6 2:0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
  • qemu-img RHEL 6 2:0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
  • qemu-kvm-tools RHEL 6 2:0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
  • qemu-guest-agent RHEL 6 2:0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
  • qemu-kvm-rhev RHEL 7, openstack 10, openstack 9 +4 more 10:2.6.0-28.el7_3.9

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:1205RHSA-2017:1206RHSA-2017:1441RHSA-2017:0981RHSA-2017:0982RHSA-2017:0983

  • kvm SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA, SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3 1.4.2-53.11.1
  • kvm SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4 1.4.2-60.3.1
  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES 12 SP1-LTSS, OpenStack Cloud 6 2.3.1-33.3.3
  • xen SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2, SLED 12 SP2 +1 more 4.7.3_03-43.9.1
  • qemu SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2 +1 more 2.6.2-41.16.1
  • xen SLES 11 SP3-LTSS, SLE Point of Sale 11 SP3, OpenStack Cloud 5 +2 more 4.2.5_21-41.1
  • xen SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 4.4.4_18-57.1
  • xen SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2, SLED 12 SP2 +1 more 4.7.2_04-39.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:3084-1SUSE-SU-2017:2969-1SUSE-SU-2017:2963-1SUSE-SU-2017:2946-1SUSE-SU-2017:2326-1SUSE-SU-2017:1774-1

  • xen Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +17 more 4.7.2-r0
  • xen Alpine 3.4 4.6.3-r8

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2016-9603

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

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-2016-9603 updated cvss 5.5

Qemu: cirrus: heap buffer overflow via vnc connection

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 qemu-kvm-rhev
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) qemu-img 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm-tools 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm-common 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) qemu-img 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm-tools 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm-common 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0987
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) qemu-img 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm-tools 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-guest-agent 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) qemu-img 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm-tools 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-guest-agent 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1206
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 6 qemu-img-rhev 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm-rhev 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm-rhev-tools 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1441
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 7 qemu-img-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0980
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6.0 (Juno) for RHEL 7 qemu-img-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0981
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 7.0 (Kilo) for RHEL 7 qemu-img-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0982
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) qemu-img 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm-tools 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-guest-agent 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1206
show 10 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) qemu-img 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm-tools 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm-common 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0987
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) qemu-img 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm-tools 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-guest-agent 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1206
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) qemu-img 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm-tools 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6, qemu-kvm-common 1.5.3-126.el7_3.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0987
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8.0 (Liberty) qemu-img-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0983
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0984
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10.0 qemu-img-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0988
  • Red Hat Virtualization 4 Management Agent for RHEL 7 Hosts qemu-img-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0985
  • Red Hat RHEV Agents (vdsm) qemu-img-rhev 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm-rhev 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3, qemu-kvm-rhev-tools 0.12.1.2-2.503.el6_9.3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1205
  • Red Hat RHEV-H and VDSM for 7 Hosts qemu-img-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-tools-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9, qemu-kvm-common-rhev 2.6.0-28.el7_3.9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0985
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kvm, xen Red Hat OpenStack Platform 11 (Ocata) qemu-kvm-rhev
    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

4.45% 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
CNA 3.0 5.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L
NVD 3.0 9.9 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 9.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • QEMU Qemu:

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-122 Heap-based Buffer Overflow
  • 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.