A flaw was found in the USB redirector device (usb-redir) of QEMU. Small USB packets are combined into a single, large transfer request, to reduce the overhead and improve performance. The combined size of the bulk transfer is used to dynamically allocate a variable length array (VLA) on the stack without proper validation. Since the total size is not bounded, a malicious guest could use this flaw to influence the array length and cause the QEMU process to perform an excessive allocation on the stack, resulting in a denial of service.
CVE-2021-3527
Score 5.5 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 5.5; sources differ by 0.0.
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 5.5
- EG Score
- 5.5(medium)
- EG Risk
- 29(Track)EG Risk 29/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity55% × 45%Exploitation0% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 0%
- EPSS %ILE
- 31%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
May 26, 2021
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
References (16)
- secalert@redhathttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1955695
- secalert@redhathttps://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/commit/05a40b172e4d691371534828078be47e7fff524c
- secalert@redhathttps://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/commit/7ec54f9eb62b5d177e30eb8b1cad795a5f8d8986
- secalert@redhathttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/09/msg00000.html
- secalert@redhathttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/09/msg00008.html
- secalert@redhathttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-27
- secalert@redhathttps://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210708-0008/
- secalert@redhathttps://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/05/05/5
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1955695
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/commit/05a40b172e4d691371534828078be47e7fff524c
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/commit/7ec54f9eb62b5d177e30eb8b1cad795a5f8d8986
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/09/msg00000.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/09/msg00008.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202208-27
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210708-0008/
Patch Availability(1)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | qemu-system-x86-xen (1:5.2+dfsg-9ubuntu3.1) @ hirsute | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(6 across 6 ecosystems)
Debian:10(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| qemu | 1:3.1+dfsg-8 ... 1:3.1+dfsg-8~deb10u1 (9 versions) | 1:3.1+dfsg-8+deb10u9 | — |
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| qemu | — | 1:5.2+dfsg-11 | — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| qemu | — | 1:5.2+dfsg-11 | — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| qemu | — | 1:5.2+dfsg-11 | — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| qemu | — | 1:5.2+dfsg-11 | — |
Debian:9(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| qemu | 1:2.8+dfsg-6 ... 1:2.8+dfsg-6+deb9u9 (15 versions) | 1:2.8+dfsg-6+deb9u15 | — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(2)
Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.
- Microsoft MSRCCVE-2021-35272021-06-04
A flaw was found in the USB redirector device (usb-redir) of QEMU. Small USB packets are combined into a single large transfer request to reduce the overhead and improve performance. The combined size of the bulk transfer is used to dynamically allocate a variable length array (VLA) on the stack without proper validation. Since the total size is not bounded a malicious guest could use this flaw to influence the array length and cause the QEMU process to perform an excessive allocation on the stack resulting in a denial of service.
- UbuntuUSN-5010-1LOW
QEMU vulnerabilities
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 6× in last 7d / 31× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 166 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-09-19 15:38 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-18 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-17 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-17 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-16 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-15 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-12 14:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-11 14:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-11 09:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-08 21:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-07 15:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-06 16:31 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-09-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-05 15:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-04 13:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-04 05:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-02 14:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-01 03:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-30 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-30 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-28 21:37 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-27 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-26 14:43 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 moreShow fewer
- 2026-08-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-24 14:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-23 00:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 02:15 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-19 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-18 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-17 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 02:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-15 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-13 21:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-12 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-11 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-09 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-08 16:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-07 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-04 21:18 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-04 10:34 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-03 10:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-02 02:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-01 04:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-28 15:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-25 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 02:02 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 22:49 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 19:29 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-02 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 02:18 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2021-3527?
When was CVE-2021-3527 disclosed?
Is CVE-2021-3527 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-3527?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-3527?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-3527
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-3527?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.