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CVE Record

CVE-2019-20175: An issue was discovered in ide_dma_cb() in hw/ide/core.c in QEMU 2.4.0 through 4.2.0.

An issue was discovered in ide_dma_cb() in hw/ide/core.c in QEMU 2.4.0 through 4.2.0. The guest system can crash the QEMU process in the host system via a special SCSI_IOCTL_SEND_COMMAND. It hits an assertion that implies that the size of successful DMA transfers there must be a multiple of 512 (the size of a sector). NOTE: a member of the QEMU security team disputes the significance of this issue because a "privileged guest user has many ways to cause similar DoS effect, without triggering this assert.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysislow

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2019-20175 is a QEMU denial-of-service issue where a guest can crash the host-side QEMU process. The published record describes affected QEMU versions 2.4.0 through 4.2.0. The issue is disputed by a QEMU security team member because a privileged guest user already has many similar ways to cause guest VM disruption.

Executive priority

Treat this as a low-priority virtualization stability issue unless affected QEMU versions host untrusted tenants. The available evidence supports denial of service against a VM process, with disputed security significance and no cited active exploitation.

Technical view

The issue is in ide_dma_cb() in hw/ide/core.c. A specially formed SCSI_IOCTL_SEND_COMMAND from the guest can trigger an assertion about successful DMA transfers needing sector-size alignment. The documented impact is a crash of the QEMU process, not host code execution or guest escape.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most relevant where QEMU 2.4.0 through 4.2.0 runs untrusted or semi-trusted guests, especially with privileged guest users. Evidence does not identify affected downstream products, distro packages, configurations, or cloud platforms.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not show active exploitation, public weaponization, or CISA KEV listing. The described actor position is inside the guest system, and the dispute note narrows practical significance because privileged guest users can cause similar denial-of-service outcomes.

Researcher notes

Do not infer guest escape, memory corruption, or broader host compromise from the provided sources. Key unknowns are downstream patch status, exact configuration requirements, and whether local vendor builds carry assertions or backports.

Mitigation direction

  • Inventory QEMU versions and flag 2.4.0 through 4.2.0 deployments.
  • Check QEMU and operating-system vendor guidance for fixes or backports.
  • Prioritize hosts running untrusted, shared, or customer-controlled guests.
  • Limit privileged guest access where operationally possible.
  • Ensure VM crash monitoring and restart procedures are reliable.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm whether QEMU is present on virtualization hosts or CI runners.
  • Record exact QEMU versions from package or image inventories.
  • Review host logs for QEMU assertion crashes involving IDE DMA behavior.
  • Identify tenants or users with privileged access inside affected guests.
  • Verify vendor advisories before declaring a host remediated.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
7

Public sources used

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

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
6Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/an/an/aListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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