CVE-2016-7422: The virtqueue_map_desc function in hw/virtio/virtio.c in QEMU (aka Quick Emulator) allows local guest OS ad...

Security readout for executives and security teams

This is a QEMU virtualization denial-of-service flaw. A privileged user inside a guest VM could provide an oversized virtio I/O descriptor length that triggers a NULL pointer dereference and crashes the QEMU process. The evidence points to VM outage, not host code execution or data theft. Exposure is most relevant to environments running QEMU/KVM with virtio devices where guest administrators are not fully trusted, such as hosted virtualization or multi-tenant platforms. Single-tenant VMs with trusted guest administrators have lower practical risk. Treat this as a reliability risk for virtualization platforms, not a confirmed breach vector. Patch during the next appropriate virtualization maintenance window, sooner for environments where customers or untrusted users control guest operating systems. Mitigation focus: Apply QEMU updates from the relevant vendor advisory or upstream fixed release.; Prioritize hosts running untrusted or tenant-managed guest VMs.; Review Red Hat, SUSE, Gentoo, or platform vendor guidance for package-specific fixes..

Prepared

Jun 13, 2026, 13:16 UTC (UTC+00:00)

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.