dbcve.org
FedoraOperating system · Fedoraproject

CVE-2023-3180

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-08-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.1.0 or later.
See remediation →
67/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 virtual crypto device while handling data encryption/decryption requests in virtio_crypto_handle_sym_req. There is no check for the value of `src_len` and `dst_len` in virtio_crypto_sym_op_helper, potentially leading to a heap buffer overflow when the two values differ.

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-122

Data overflows a buffer allocated on the heap, corrupting neighbouring heap structures and allocator metadata that a patient attacker can groom into control of execution. It is subtler than a stack overflow but just as dangerous. The fix is validating lengths before every write and using safe allocators and bounded operations.

General guidance for the heap-based buffer overflow 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
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 38
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.0
QemuApplication
Affected:< 8.1.0= 8.1.0

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/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 8.1.0 or later
Fixed in 8.1.0
Vendor patch bugzilla.redhat.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

QEMU 8.1.1 or later stable release

  1. 1. Identify the QEMU package version currently installed using: rpm -q qemu-kvm or dpkg -l qemu-system-x86
  2. 2. Upgrade QEMU to version 8.1.1 or later (the first version containing the fix for this heap buffer overflow)
  3. 3. For Fedora systems: Run 'sudo dnf update qemu-kvm' to apply the fix
  4. 4. For Debian systems: Run 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install qemu-system-x86' to get the fixed version
  5. 5. Restart any running QEMU virtual machines and the libvirtd service to ensure the updated QEMU binary is loaded
  6. 6. Verify the fix by checking the QEMU version: qemu-system-x86 --version
Caveat Major QEMU upgrades may introduce backward compatibility changes with older VM configurations; ensure VM disk image and configuration compatibility before production upgrade

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 $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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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-2023-3180 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