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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2016-9577

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-07-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.13.90 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
A vulnerability was discovered in SPICE before 0.13.90 in the server's protocol handling. An authenticated attacker could send crafted messages to the SPICE server causing a heap overflow leading to a crash or possible code execution.

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 · high confidence

A heap overflow vulnerability exists in SPICE servers prior to version 0.13.90 in the server's protocol handling code. An authenticated attacker can send specially crafted messages to the SPICE server that overflow heap memory allocations, potentially causing a denial of service (server crash) or enabling arbitrary code execution with server privileges.

MitigationUpgrade SPICE server installations to version 0.13.90 or later. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict network access to SPICE ports and enforce strong authentication to reduce the attack surface.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux Server AusOperating system
Affected:= 7.3= 7.4
Enterprise Linux Server EusOperating system
Affected:= 7.3= 7.4= 7.5
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
SpiceApplication
Affected:< 0.13.90

CVSS 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
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if SPICE server is installed
    On Debian/Ubuntu: dpkg -l | grep -i spice. On RHEL/CentOS: rpm -qa | grep -i spice. On Fedora: dnf list installed | grep -i spice. Check for binaries: which spice-server, ls /usr/lib*/spice*
    Affected if SPICE server package is not found (not installed) or is found but version cannot be determined
  2. Determine installed SPICE server version
    On Debian: dpkg -l <spice-package-name>. On RHEL: rpm -q spice-server or rpm -qi spice-server. Check spice-server binary version: /usr/lib*/spice-server/spice-server -V or --version if available
    Affected if Installed version is less than 0.13.90 or version cannot be determined
  3. Verify SPICE server is running and exposed
    Check for running process: ps aux | grep spice. Check network listeners: netstat -tlnp | grep -E '590[0-9]|5931' or ss -tlnp | grep -E '590[0-9]|5931'. Check for spice-server service: systemctl list-units | grep -i spice
    Affected if SPICE server is actively running and listening on a network port (vulnerable to remote exploitation)
  4. Check if SPICE is used by virtualization platforms
    Check libvirt/qemu config: virsh list --all and virsh dumpxml <vm-name> | grep -i spice. Check for SPICE graphics device in VM configurations. Review /etc/libvirt/qemu/*.xml files for <graphics type='spice'
    Affected if Virtual machines are configured to use SPICE graphics and the server version is vulnerable

A user is affected if the SPICE server is installed with a version lower than 0.13.90 and the service is running or exposed to network connections.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.13.90 or later
Fixed in 0.13.90
Interim mitigation

Upgrade SPICE server installations to version 0.13.90 or later. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict network access to SPICE ports and enforce strong authentication to reduce the attack surface.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-9577 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data