Improper privilege management in qemu
Priority LOW 36CWE-269Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Privilege escalation
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 6 fixed, 1 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-269.
Summary
A flaw was found in qemu. A host privilege escalation issue was found in the virtio-fs shared file system daemon where a privileged guest user is able to create a device special file in the shared directory and use it to r/w access host devices.
Why it matters now
EPSS 0.00533 45th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Public exploit Yes 2 exploit referencesTagged by NVD
Fix Partial Red Hat: 2 advisoriesRed Hat: 6 fixed, 1 without a fix
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | qemu | qemu 5.2.0 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- qemu Vendor— Affected qemu 5.2.0 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
Remediation
Red Hat 2 advisories
- RHSA-2021:0743 Released 2021-03-08 · Red Hat rating Importantvirt:8.2 and virt-devel:8.2 security update
- Advanced Virtualization CodeReady Builder for RHEL 8.2.1 SLOF-20191022-3.git899d9883.module+el8.2.0+5449+efc036dd.src::virt-devel:8.2, hivex-1.3.18-20.module+el8.2.0+5588+63a201c3.i686::virt-devel:8.2, hivex-devel-1.3.18-20.module+el8.2.0+5588+63a201c3.i686::virt-devel:8.2 +47
- Advanced Virtualization for RHEL 8.2.1 SLOF-20191022-3.git899d9883.module+el8.2.0+5449+efc036dd.noarch::virt:8.2, SLOF-20191022-3.git899d9883.module+el8.2.0+5449+efc036dd.src::virt:8.2, hivex-1.3.18-20.module+el8.2.0+5588+63a201c3.aarch64::virt:8.2 +47
- RHSA-2021:0711 Released 2021-03-03 · Red Hat rating Importantvirt:rhel and virt-devel:rhel security update
- Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) SLOF-20191022-3.git899d9883.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418.src::virt-devel:rhel, hivex-1.3.18-20.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418.i686::virt-devel:rhel, hivex-devel-1.3.18-20.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418.i686::virt-devel:rhel +47
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) SLOF-20191022-3.git899d9883.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418.noarch::virt:rhel, SLOF-20191022-3.git899d9883.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418.src::virt:rhel, hivex-1.3.18-20.module+el8.3.0+6423+e4cb6418.aarch64::virt:rhel +47
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Advanced Virtualization | Affected | No fix yet |
| Advanced Virtualization CodeReady Builder for RHEL 8.2.1 | Fixed | RHSA-2021:0743 |
| Advanced Virtualization CodeReady Builder for RHEL 8.3.1 | Fixed | — |
| Advanced Virtualization for RHEL 8.2.1 | Fixed | RHSA-2021:0743 |
| Advanced Virtualization for RHEL 8.3.1 | Fixed | — |
| Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2021:0711 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2021:0711 |
Not affected: 3 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2020-35517
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-jgxm-7vmw-79h7
References
Exploit 2
Patch 2
More Qemu vulnerabilities
- TI-2024-16148 QEMU before 8.2.0 has an integer underflow, and resultant buffer overflow, via a TI… CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-02736 Uncontrolled resource consumption in QEMU CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
- TI-2023-02681 Qemu: 9pfs: improper access control on special files CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.1
- TI-2019-09678 The QMP migrate command in QEMU version 4.0.0 and earlier is vulnerable to OS command… CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2024-03326 Qemu-kvm: net: assertion failure in update_sctp_checksum() CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.5
- TI-2023-22631 QEMU through 8.0.0 could trigger a division by zero in scsi_disk_reset in… CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.5
Sources
- CVE-2020-35517 · CVE Program
- CVE-2020-35517 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-jgxm-7vmw-79h7 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2020-35517 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences