Medium [CVE-2025-12464] Qemu-kvm: stack buffer overflow in e1000 device via short frames in loopback mode
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2025-12464 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.
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Summary
A stack-based buffer overflow was found in the QEMU e1000 network device. The code for padding short frames was dropped from individual network devices and moved to the net core code.
The issue stems from the device's receive code still being able to process a short frame in loopback mode. This could lead to a buffer overrun in the e1000_receive_iov() function via the loopback code path.
A malicious guest user could use this vulnerability to crash the QEMU process on the host, resulting in a denial of service. This CVE is rated as Moderate because the vulnerability is confined to the loopback interface.
Furthermore, even though e1000 is common for legacy Operating Systems, the device is generally discouraged in modern virtualization deployments (where virtio-net is recommended). Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 6.2 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-121. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.
Red Hat lists Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 as not affected. Red Hat does not currently list a fixing RHSA for this CVE.
Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat package: qemu-kvm.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
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