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Resource Allocation Without LimitsWeakness · CWE-770

CVE-2025-14876

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 virtio-crypto device of QEMU. A malicious guest operating system can exploit a missing length limit in the AKCIPHER path, leading to uncontrolled memory allocation. This can result in a denial of service (DoS) on the host system by causing the QEMU process to terminate unexpectedly.

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 missing length limit in the AKCIPHER (Asymmetric Key Cipher) processing path of QEMU's virtio-crypto device allows a malicious guest OS to trigger uncontrolled memory allocation, causing the QEMU process to crash and resulting in host-side denial of service.

MitigationUpdate QEMU to the version containing the patched length validation in the virtio-crypto AKCIPHER handler; consider restricting or monitoring virtio-crypto device usage from untrusted guests as a defense-in-depth measure.

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 checks

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

  1. Check QEMU version
    Run `qemu-system-x86_64 --version` or `qemu --version` to determine the installed QEMU version
    Affected if The installed QEMU version predates the security fix for CVE-2025-14876 (compare your version to the fixed release)
  2. Identify virtio-crypto device usage
    Examine the QEMU command line or libvirt domain XML for the presence of `-device virtio-crypto-pci`, `virtio-crypto-ccw`, or similar virtio-crypto device definitions
    Affected if The virtio-crypto device is configured and exposed to a guest VM
  3. Check for active virtio-crypto processes
    Run `ps aux | grep qemu` or examine running VM configurations to identify if any QEMU instances have virtio-crypto enabled
    Affected if A running QEMU process is actively using the virtio-crypto device
  4. Verify guest access to virtio-crypto
    Review the VM configuration to confirm whether untrusted or external guests have direct access to the virtio-crypto device (check for device passthrough or host device assignments)
    Affected if Untrusted guests can access the virtio-crypto device directly

You are affected if your QEMU version is unpatched AND you are exposing the virtio-crypto device to any guest VMs, particularly untrusted ones.

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 to the version containing the patched length validation in the virtio-crypto AKCIPHER handler; consider restricting or monitoring virtio-crypto device usage from untrusted guests as a defense-in-depth measure.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,560
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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-2025-14876 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