An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x.
An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Neither xenstore implementation does any permission checks when reporting a xenstore watch event. A guest administrator can watch the root xenstored node, which will cause notifications for every created, modified, and deleted key. A guest administrator can also use the special watches, which will cause a notification every time a domain is created and destroyed. Data may include: number, type, and domids of other VMs; existence and domids of driver domains; numbers of virtual interfaces, block devices, vcpus; existence of virtual framebuffers and their backend style (e.g., existence of VNC service); Xen VM UUIDs for other domains; timing information about domain creation and device setup; and some hints at the backend provisioning of VMs and their devices. The watch events do not contain values stored in xenstore, only key names. A guest administrator can observe non-sensitive domain and device lifecycle events relating to other guests. This information allows some insight into overall system configuration (including the number and general nature of other guests), and configuration of other guests (including the number and general nature of other guests' devices). This information might be commercially interesting or might make other attacks easier. There is not believed to be exposure of sensitive data. Specifically, there is no exposure of VNC passwords, port numbers, pathnames in host and guest filesystems, cryptographic keys, or within-guest data.
- Published
- Dec 15, 2020
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.3% · 21th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-862
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Report tools
Action score
9
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 9 / 40 · 2.3 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.3%
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| xen | xen | cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen |
| debian | debian linux | cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux |
| 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.
- debian debian linux10.0
- fedoraproject fedora32
- fedoraproject fedora33
- xen xenup to 4.14.0 inclusive
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.11 | xen | before 4.13.2-r3 | 4.13.2-r3 |
| Alpine:v3.13 | xen | before 4.14.1-r0 | 4.14.1-r0 |
| Debian:10 | xen | before 4.11.4+57-g41a822c392-2 | 4.11.4+57-g41a822c392-2 |
| Debian:12 | xen | before 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1 | 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.1 | xen | before 4.12.4_06-lp151.2.36.1 | 4.12.4_06-lp151.2.36.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.2 | xen | before 4.13.2_06-lp152.2.21.1 | 4.13.2_06-lp152.2.21.1 |
| SUSE:HPE Helion OpenStack 8 | xen | before 4.9.4_16-3.80.1 | 4.9.4_16-3.80.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-ESPOS | xen | before 4.10.4_24-3.53.1 | 4.10.4_24-3.53.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 | xen | before 4.12.4_06-3.40.1 | 4.12.4_06-3.40.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2 | xen | before 4.13.2_06-3.22.1 | 4.13.2_06-3.22.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4-LTSS | xen | before 4.4.4_48-61.61.1 | 4.4.4_48-61.61.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5 | xen | before 4.12.4_06-3.36.1 | 4.12.4_06-3.36.1 |
| SUSE:OpenStack Cloud 7 | xen | before 4.7.6_14-43.73.1 | 4.7.6_14-43.73.1 |
| SUSE:OpenStack Cloud 9 | xen | before 4.11.4_16-2.48.1 | 4.11.4_16-2.48.1 |
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 | 4.13.2-r3 · Alpine:v3.11 | Package registry (OSV) |
| debian:xen | 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1 · Debian:12 | Package registry (OSV) |
| opensuse:xen | 4.12.4_06-lp151.2.36.1 · openSUSE:Leap 15.1 | Package registry (OSV) |
| suse:xen | 4.4.4_48-61.61.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4-LTSS | 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
- Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
- Administrator privileges are required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- low · data can be read
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- none
- Attack vector
- Local
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- Low
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- None
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-862 · Missing AuthorizationCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
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.
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; 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 helpChange log
- Fix✗ → ✓
For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →
References
- lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2C6M6S3CIMEBACH6O7V4H2VDANMO6TVA/
- lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/OBLV6L6Q24PPQ2CRFXDX4Q76KU776GKI/
- www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4812
- xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-115.html
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.