QemuApplication

CVE-2022-1050

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-03-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.20.1 or later.
See remediation →
90/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Zero-click Patch available

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 flaw was found in the QEMU implementation of VMWare's paravirtual RDMA device. This flaw allows a crafted guest driver to execute HW commands when shared buffers are not yet allocated, potentially leading to a use-after-free condition.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-416

Memory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.

General guidance for the use after free class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
QemuApplication
Affected:< 2.20.1

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.20.1 or later
Fixed in 2.20.1
Recommended fix High confidence

QEMU 2.20.1 or later (or a patched version provided by your Linux distribution vendor)

  1. 1. Identify current QEMU version using: qemu-system-x86_64 --version or rpm -q qemu-kvm (or equivalent package manager command)
  2. 2. Plan upgrade to QEMU version 2.20.1 or later
  3. 3. In a test/staging environment, verify that existing VMs and configurations work with the new QEMU version
  4. 4. Before production upgrade, ensure backups of VM images and configurations are available
  5. 5. Upgrade QEMU package using your distribution's package manager (e.g., apt-get update && apt-get install qemu-system-x86, or yum update qemu-kvm)
  6. 6. Restart QEMU instances or the libvirt service as required
  7. 7. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking: qemu-system-x86_64 --version
  8. 8. Confirm the vulnerability is resolved - the RDMA device should now properly initialize shared buffers before executing HW commands
Caveat Upgrading QEMU may introduce compatibility changes; test critical VM configurations in a non-production environment first. Major version upgrades can sometimes change device emulation behavior or require VM configuration adjustments.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2022-1050 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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