What is CVE-2015-3456?

CVE-2015-3456 is a vulnerability in Qemu, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. Published 2015-05-13.

Is CVE-2015-3456 known to be exploited?

10 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Buffer overflow in Qemu

CVE-2015-3456

The Floppy Disk Controller (FDC) in QEMU, as used in Xen 4.5.x and earlier and KVM, allows local guest users to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds write and guest crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via the (1) FD_CMD_READ_ID, (2) FD_CMD_DRIVE_SPECIFICATION_COMMAND, or other unspecified commands, aka VENOM.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2015-05-13 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 7.7 (High). Vector: AV:A/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.153 (96.7th percentile), scored 2026-10-20.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 97th percentile — 96.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.153 · newest: 0.153 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Qemu
Xen — versions 4.5.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux — versions 5, 6.0, 7.0
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization — versions 3.0
Red Hat OpenStack — versions 4.0, 5.0, 6.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-119 — Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.exploit-db.com/exploits/37053/ (exploit)
www.securitytracker.com/id/1032306 (vdb-entry)
www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/cpujul2015-2367936.html
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-05/msg00009.html (vendor-advisory)
kb.juniper.net/JSA10783
www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3259 (vendor-advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-05/msg00021.html (vendor-advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-05/msg00042.html (vendor-advisory)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201612-27 (vendor-advisory)
rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-0999.html (vendor-advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2015-3456?: CVE-2015-3456 is a vulnerability in Qemu, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. Published 2015-05-13.
Is CVE-2015-3456 known to be exploited?: 10 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.