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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2018-12617

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2018-06-21
  • WeaknessCWE-190

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

qmp_guest_file_read in qga/commands-posix.c and qga/commands-win32.c in qemu-ga (aka QEMU Guest Agent) in QEMU 2.12.50 has an integer overflow causing a g_malloc0() call to trigger a segmentation fault when trying to allocate a large memory chunk. The vulnerability can be exploited by sending a crafted QMP command (including guest-file-read with a large count value) to the agent via the listening socket.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2018-06-22Exploit-DB entryExploit-DB

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-04 09:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2018-12617?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2018-12617?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Qemu
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.12≤ 2.12.50no fix published
Canonical ubuntu linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
14.4= 14.04no fix published
16.4= 16.04no fix published
18.4= 18.04no fix published
18.10= 18.10no fix published
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
8.0= 8.0no fix published
9.0= 9.0no fix published

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • kvmSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 11 SP4all versions · fixed in 1.4.2-60.15.2
  • kvmSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4all versions · fixed in 1.4.2-60.15.2
  • kvmSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3-TERADATAall versions · fixed in 1.4.2-53.23.2
  • kvmSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3-LTSSall versions · fixed in 1.4.2-53.23.2
  • kvmSUSE:Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 11 SP3all versions · fixed in 1.4.2-53.23.2
  • qemuUbuntu:18.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.8
  • qemuUbuntu:16.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 1:2.5+dfsg-5ubuntu10.33
  • qemuUbuntu:14.04:LTSall versions · fixed in 2.0.0+dfsg-2ubuntu1.44

26 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2018-12617 Red Hat Product Security9 known affected

    Qemu: qemu-guest-agent: Integer overflow causes segmentation fault in qmp_guest_file_read()

    qemu-guest-agent as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · qemu-guest-agent-win32 as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · qemu-img as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · +6 more

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. No fix available, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2018-12617 · 8 productsFix deferred
  2. No fix planned, says the vendor Red Hat Product Security CVE-2018-12617 · 1 productWill not fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-03 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
EDB-44925
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

Sources

  • NVDCVSS 3.17.5read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.05read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-190read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score24.6 %read 2026-11-03
  • Exploit-DBdetectionread 2026-11-03
  • OSVaffected packages—

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2018-06-21
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-12617?

qmp_guest_file_read in qga/commands-posix.c and qga/commands-win32.c in qemu-ga (aka QEMU Guest Agent) in QEMU 2.12.50 has an integer overflow causing a g_malloc0() call to trigger a segmentation fault when trying to allocate a large memory chunk. The vulnerability can be exploited by sending a crafted QMP command (including guest-file-read with a large count value) to the agent via the listening socket.

Is CVE-2018-12617 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-12617 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 24.6% on 2026-11-03, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-12617?

CVE-2018-12617 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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