Out-of-bounds WriteWeakness · CWE-787

CVE-2024-4467

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-07-02
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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 flaw was found in the QEMU disk image utility (qemu-img) 'info' command. A specially crafted image file containing a `json:{}` value describing block devices in QMP could cause the qemu-img process on the host to consume large amounts of memory or CPU time, leading to denial of service or read/write to an existing external file.

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 flaw in qemu-img's 'info' command allows specially crafted image files with json:{} block device descriptions to cause excessive memory/CPU consumption (denial of service) and potentially read/write to external files on the host system.

MitigationUpdate qemu-img to the patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, restrict qemu-img access and validate image sources before running 'info' commands.

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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. Locate qemu-img executable
    Run 'which qemu-img' or 'find /usr -name qemu-img 2>/dev/null' to find the qemu-img binary
    Affected if qemu-img is not found on the system, the system is not affected by this vulnerability
  2. Determine qemu-img version
    Run 'qemu-img --version' and compare the version number to the fixed version (qemu-img 9.0.0 and later are patched; check your distribution's security advisories for specific patched versions)
    Affected if The installed version is older than the patched version for your qemu-img package
  3. Identify qemu-img usage patterns
    Search for scripts, cron jobs, or automated processes that invoke 'qemu-img info' on image files, especially those from untrusted or external sources: grep -r 'qemu-img info' /path/to/search
    Affected if qemu-img info is run against image files from untrusted or external sources without prior validation
  4. Check for untrusted image files
    Locate qemu image files (.qcow2, .img, etc.) that may have originated from untrusted sources or the internet: find / -name '*.qcow2' -o -name '*.img' 2>/dev/null and review their provenance
    Affected if Untrusted or externally-sourced image files exist on the system and are processed by qemu-img info
  5. Audit recent qemu-img info execution
    Review system logs, bash history, or audit logs for recent 'qemu-img info' command execution: history | grep 'qemu-img info' or check /var/log/audit/audit.log if auditd is enabled
    Affected if qemu-img info has been recently executed, particularly on untrusted images

The environment is affected if qemu-img is installed with a vulnerable version AND processes image files (especially untrusted or externally-sourced ones) using the 'info' command.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update qemu-img to the patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, restrict qemu-img access and validate image sources before running 'info' commands.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2024-4467 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
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