An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing x86 AMD HVM guest OS users to cause a denial of service or possibly gain privileges b
An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing x86 AMD HVM guest OS users to cause a denial of service or possibly gain privileges by triggering data-structure access during pagetable-height updates. When running on AMD systems with an IOMMU, Xen attempted to dynamically adapt the number of levels of pagetables (the pagetable height) in the IOMMU according to the guest's address space size. The code to select and update the height had several bugs. Notably, the update was done without taking a lock which is necessary for safe operation. A malicious guest administrator can cause Xen to access data structures while they are being modified, causing Xen to crash. Privilege escalation is thought to be very difficult but cannot be ruled out. Additionally, there is a potential memory leak of 4kb per guest boot, under memory pressure. Only Xen on AMD CPUs is vulnerable. Xen running on Intel CPUs is not vulnerable. ARM systems are not vulnerable. Only systems where guests are given direct access to physical devices are vulnerable. Systems which do not use PCI pass-through are not vulnerable. Only HVM guests can exploit the vulnerability. PV and PVH guests cannot. All versions of Xen with IOMMU support are vulnerable.
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for the hundreds of thousands of vulnerabilities in the database; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for help- Published
- Dec 11, 2019
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.5% · 41th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-401
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Report tools
Action score
28
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 28 / 40 · 7.2 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.5%
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| xen | xen | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen |
| fedoraproject | fedora | cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- fedoraproject fedora31
- xen xenup to 4.12.1 inclusive
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.10 | xen | before 4.12.2-r0 | 4.12.2-r0 |
| Alpine:v3.11 | xen | before 4.13.0-r0 | 4.13.0-r0 |
| Alpine:v3.8 | xen | before 4.10.4-r2 | 4.10.4-r2 |
| Alpine:v3.9 | xen | before 4.11.3-r1 | 4.11.3-r1 |
| Debian:10 | xen | before 4.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1~deb10u1 | 4.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1~deb10u1 |
| Debian:12 | xen | before 4.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1 | 4.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1 |
| Debian:9 | xen | before 4.8.5.final+shim4.10.4-1+deb9u12 | 4.8.5.final+shim4.10.4-1+deb9u12 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.1 | xen | before 4.12.1_06-lp151.2.9.1 | 4.12.1_06-lp151.2.9.1 |
| SUSE:HPE Helion OpenStack 8 | xen | before 4.9.4_06-3.59.1 | 4.9.4_06-3.59.1 |
| SUSE:HPE Helion OpenStack 8 | xen | before 4.9.4_06-3.62.1 | 4.9.4_06-3.62.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP4 | xen | before 4.11.3_02-2.20.1 | 4.11.3_02-2.20.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 | xen | before 4.10.4_08-3.28.1 | 4.10.4_08-3.28.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 | xen | before 4.12.1_06-3.9.1 | 4.12.1_06-3.9.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4-LTSS | xen | before 4.4.4_42-61.52.1 | 4.4.4_42-61.52.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1 | xen | before 4.5.5_28-22.64.1 | 4.5.5_28-22.64.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5 | xen | before 4.12.1_10-3.8.1 | 4.12.1_10-3.8.1 |
| SUSE:OpenStack Cloud 7 | xen | before 4.7.6_06-43.59.1 | 4.7.6_06-43.59.1 |
Same product
xen: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2017-10921The grant-table feature in Xen through 4.8.x does not ensure sufficient type counts for a GNTMAP_device_map and GNTMAP_host_map mapping, whi41Plan
- CVE-2017-10920The grant-table feature in Xen through 4.8.x mishandles a GNTMAP_device_map and GNTMAP_host_map mapping, when followed by only a GNTMAP_host41Plan
- CVE-2017-10918Xen through 4.8.x does not validate memory allocations during certain P2M operations, which allows guest OS users to obtain privileged host 41Plan
- CVE-2017-10912Xen through 4.8.x mishandles page transfer, which allows guest OS users to obtain privileged host OS access, aka XSA-217.41Plan
- CVE-2015-8104The KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel through 4.2.6, and Xen 4.3.x through 4.6.x, allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (host O41Plan
- CVE-2015-5165The C+ mode offload emulation in the RTL8139 network card device model in QEMU, as used in Xen 4.5.x and earlier, allows remote attackers to41Plan
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
| Product / package | Fixed version | Source |
|---|---|---|
| alpine:xen | 4.12.2-r0 · Alpine:v3.10 | Package registry (OSV) |
| debian:xen | 4.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1 · Debian:12 | Package registry (OSV) |
| opensuse:xen | 4.12.1_06-lp151.2.9.1 · openSUSE:Leap 15.1 | Package registry (OSV) |
| suse:xen | 4.12.1_10-3.8.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5 | Package registry (OSV) |
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Physical access to the device is required.
- Administrator privileges are required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- high · data can be read
- Integrity
- high · data or configuration can be modified
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
Impact can extend beyond the vulnerable component (scope changes).
- Attack vector
- Physical
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- High
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-401 · Missing Release of Memory after Effective LifetimeCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
nvd-primary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.
Change log
- Fix✗ → ✓
For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →
References
- lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-01/msg00011.html
- lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/34HBFTYNMQMWIO2GGK7DB6KV4M6R5YPV/
- lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/D5R73AYE53QA32KTMHUVKCX6E52CIS43/
- seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/21
- security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-56
- www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4602
- xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-311.html
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.