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TI-2020-18036 Aliases CVE-2020-35517GHSA-jgxm-7vmw-79h7

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

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
—qemuqemu 5.2.0—No fix listedCNA
  • qemu Vendor— Affected qemu 5.2.0 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*5.0.0 – 5.2.50VulnerableQEMU
  • cpe:2.3:a:qemu:qemu:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.0.0 – 5.2.50 Vulnerable ·QEMU

Remediation

Red Hat 2 advisories

  • RHSA-2021:0743 Released 2021-03-08 · Red Hat rating Important
    virt: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 Important
    virt: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 →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Advanced VirtualizationAffectedNo fix yet
Advanced Virtualization CodeReady Builder for RHEL 8.2.1Fixed RHSA-2021:0743
Advanced Virtualization CodeReady Builder for RHEL 8.3.1Fixed—
Advanced Virtualization for RHEL 8.2.1Fixed RHSA-2021:0743
Advanced Virtualization for RHEL 8.3.1Fixed—
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

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2020-35517
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-jgxm-7vmw-79h7

References

  • 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
See all 418 →

Sources