A bug in QEMU could cause a guest I/O operation otherwise addressed to an arbitrary disk offset to be targeted to offset 0 instead (potentially overwriting the VM's boot code). This could be used, for example, by L2 guests with a virtual disk (vdiskL2) stored on a virtual disk of an L1 (vdiskL1) hypervisor to read and/or write data to LBA 0 of vdiskL1, potentially gaining control of L1 at its next reboot.
This vulnerability affects an unusually large number of packages. The highest-confidence fixes are shown above; the full list is longer. Check the referenced advisories for complete coverage.
TridentStack Control can deploy fixes like this automatically across your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet. See how it works
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Attack VectorLocal
Attack ComplexityHigh
Privileges RequiredHigh
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
Impact
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Exploit Intelligence
0.23%probability of exploitation in 30 days
14thpercentile
Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 14% of all known CVEs.
Published advisories record a fix for 708 affected products. The "How to fix" section on this page lists the fixed version and source advisory for each one, so apply the entry matching what you actually run.
Is CVE-2023-5088 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2023-5088 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 0.23% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 14% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2023-5088?
CVE-2023-5088 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.4, rated medium. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2023-5088 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for qemu (Debian), SLOF (Red Hat / RHEL), SLOF (Rocky), SLOF-0:20210217 (Rocky), and 704 more. Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
TridentStack Control continuously scans your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet for known vulnerabilities, prioritizes them by severity and active exploitation, and patches them automatically.
This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-11-03.
