CVE-2024-31420
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 · uneditedA NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in KubeVirt. This flaw allows an attacker who has access to a virtual machine guest on a node with DownwardMetrics enabled to cause a denial of service by issuing a high number of calls to vm-dump-metrics --virtio and then deleting the virtual machine.
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 confidenceA NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in KubeVirt's DownwardMetrics feature allows an authenticated attacker with VM guest access to crash the vm-dump-metrics process by issuing repeated vm-dump-metrics --virtio calls followed by VM deletion, causing denial of service on the node.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify KubeVirt is installedCheck for KubeVirt pods in the cluster: kubectl get pods -n kubevirt -l app.kubernetes.io/name=kubevirtAffected if No KubeVirt installation found means not affected
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Check KubeVirt versionRun: kubectl get kubevirt kubevirt -n kubevirt -o jsonpath='{.spec.version}' or kubectl get csv -n kubevirt -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.version}'Affected if Compare installed version to any affected versions provided by KubeVirt security advisories; if version is unknown or not in advisories, continue to feature check
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Confirm DownwardMetrics feature is enabledCheck KubeVirt CR for DownwardMetrics configuration: kubectl get kubevirt kubevirt -n kubevirt -o jsonpath='{.spec.configuration}' | grep -i downwardAffected if If DownwardMetrics is present and enabled in the configuration, the environment may be affected
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Verify vm-dump-metrics binary exists on nodesOn each node, check for the binary: which vm-dump-metrics or ls /usr/bin/vm-dump-metricsAffected if If vm-dump-metrics binary exists on nodes, the vulnerable component is present
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Check for feature gate configurationInspect KubeVirt CR configuration for feature gates: kubectl get kubevirt kubevirt -n kubevirt -o jsonpath='{.spec.configuration.featureGates}'Affected if If DownwardMetrics appears in featureGates or is implicitly enabled, the node is vulnerable
A user is affected if KubeVirt is installed with DownwardMetrics feature enabled and vm-dump-metrics binary is present on nodes, regardless of version, since the vulnerability exists in this feature component.
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 dataDisable the DownwardMetrics feature on affected nodes if possible, and restrict tenant access to VM guests to prevent exploitation. Apply vendor patches when available.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-31420 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
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-2024-31420 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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