Description
The NE2000 emulator in QEMU 0.8.2 allows local users to execute arbitrary code by writing Ethernet frames with a size larger than the MTU to the EN0_TCNT register, which triggers a heap-based buffer overflow in the slirp library, aka NE2000 "mtu" heap overflow. NOTE: some sources have used CVE-2007-1321 to refer to this issue as part of "NE2000 network driver and the socket code," but this is the correct identifier for the mtu overflow vulnerability.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | qemu | 0.9.0-2 | — |
| Debian 13 | qemu | 0.9.0-2 | — |
| Debian 12 | qemu | 0.9.0-2 | — |
| Debian 4.0 | qemu | 0.8.2-4etch1 | DSA-1284-1 |
| Debian 3.1 | qemu | 0.6.1+20050407-1sarge1 | DSA-1284-1 |
Advisories 1
- DSA-1284-1 qemu Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- 23731 vdb-entry
- MDKSA-2007:203 vendor-advisory
- 42986 vdb-entry
- DSA-1284 vendor-advisory
- qemu-ne2000-code-execution(38238) vdb-entry
- 25073 third-party-advisory
- http://taviso.decsystem.org/virtsec.pdf
- 27486 third-party-advisory
- MDVSA-2008:162 vendor-advisory
- SUSE-SR:2009:002 vendor-advisory
- 33568 third-party-advisory
- ADV-2007-1597 vdb-entry
- 29129 third-party-advisory
- 25095 third-party-advisory
- 20071030 Clarification on old QEMU/NE2000/Xen issues mailing-list