CVE-2014-3657
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe virDomainListPopulate function in conf/domain_conf.c in libvirt before 1.2.9 does not clean up the lock on the list of domains, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (deadlock) via a NULL value in the second parameter in the virConnectListAllDomains API command.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceIn libvirt before 1.2.9, the virDomainListPopulate function in conf/domain_conf.c fails to release a lock on the domain list when processing a virConnectListAllDomains API call with a NULL value in the second parameter, causing a deadlock. This allows remote attackers to trigger a denial of service by exhausting available locks on the domain list.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 1.2.8= 1.2.0= 1.2.1= 1.2.2= 1.2.3= 1.2.4= 1.2.5= 1.2.6= 1.2.7CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed libvirt versionRun 'rpm -q libvirt' on RHEL/CentOS, 'dpkg -l libvirt-bin' on Debian/Ubuntu, or check the libvirt daemon version with 'libvirtd --version'Affected if The installed version is 1.2.8 or earlier, or matches any of these: 1.2.0, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.3, 1.2.4, 1.2.5, 1.2.6, or 1.2.7
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Verify libvirtd service is runningRun 'systemctl status libvirtd' or 'service libvirtd status' depending on your init systemAffected if The libvirt daemon is running and accessible to network clients, as the vulnerability is triggerable via the libvirt API
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Check libvirt API network accessibilityExamine /etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf for 'listen_tls' and 'listen_tcp' settings, or check for open port 16509 (libvirt TCP) via 'netstat -tlnp | grep 16509'Affected if The libvirtd daemon is configured to accept remote TCP connections without TLS, exposing the API to untrusted network access
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Look for lock-related denial of service indicatorsReview libvirt daemon logs in /var/log/libvirt/libvirtd.log or journalctl for patterns indicating lock timeouts, hangs, or 'failed to acquire lock' messages when processing domain listing operationsAffected if Logs show recurring failures to acquire domain list locks or thread hangs coinciding with API calls that list domains
You are affected if libvirt version 1.2.8 or earlier is installed and the libvirt API is exposed to untrusted network access, allowing remote callers to trigger the lock exhaustion via virConnectListAllDomains with NULL parameter.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade libvirt to version 1.2.9 or later which includes proper lock cleanup in the virDomainListPopulate function. If immediate patching is not possible, consider network-level restrictions on the libvirt API to limit untrusted access.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-3657 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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