CVE-2023-41051

Default functions in VolatileMemory trait lack bounds checks in vm-memory

MEDIUM
4.7
CVSS Score
Published: September 1, 2023 at 06:22 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:20 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsVm MemoryMemory Project Vm Memory

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Severity
MEDIUM4.7
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.3%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In a typical Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) there are several components, such as boot loader, virtual device drivers, virtio backend drivers and vhost drivers, that need to access the VM physical memory. The vm-memory rust crate provides a set of traits to decouple VM memory consumers from VM memory providers. An issue was discovered in the default implementations of the `VolatileMemory::{get_atomic_ref, aligned_as_ref, aligned_as_mut, get_ref, get_array_ref}` trait functions, which allows out-of-bounds memory access if the `VolatileMemory::get_slice` function returns a `VolatileSlice` whose length is less than the function’s `count` argument. No implementations of `get_slice` provided in `vm_memory` are affected. Users of custom `VolatileMemory` implementations may be impacted if the custom implementation does not adhere to `get_slice`'s documentation. The issue started in version 0.1.0 but was fixed in version 0.12.2 by inserting a check that verifies that the `VolatileSlice` returned by `get_slice` is of the correct length. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

0.1.0 ≤ v < 0.12.2
Affected range stops below 0.12.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 0.12.2
Affected range stops below 0.12.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-125

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