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CVE-2018-12891· NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.10.x.

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 26/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.43% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: xen (Alpine:v3.10) 4.11.0-r0; xen (Alpine:v3.5) 4.7.6-r0; xen (Alpine:v3.6) 4.8.4-r0.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to xen (Alpine:v3.10) 4.11.0-r0; xen (Alpine:v3.5) 4.7.6-r0; xen (Alpine:v3.6) 4.8.4-r0 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.10.x. Certain PV MMU operations may take a long time to process. For that reason Xen explicitly checks for the need to preempt the current vCPU at certain points. A few rarely taken code paths did bypass such checks. By suitably enforcing the conditions through its own page table contents, a malicious guest may cause such bypasses to be used for an unbounded number of iterations. A malicious or buggy PV guest may cause a Denial of Service (DoS) affecting the entire host. Specifically, it may prevent use of a physical CPU for an indeterminate period of time. All Xen versions from 3.4 onwards are vulnerable. Xen versions 3.3 and earlier are vulnerable to an even wider class of attacks, due to them lacking preemption checks altogether in the affected code paths. Only x86 systems are affected. ARM systems are not affected. Only multi-vCPU x86 PV guests can leverage the vulnerability. x86 HVM or PVH guests as well as x86 single-vCPU PV ones cannot leverage the vulnerability.

MediumCVSS 6.5 · v3.0—No exploit Fix available
Published
Jul 2, 2018
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
0.4% · 36th percentile
CWE
—

Report tools

JSON

Action score

26

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
26 / 40 · 6.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.4%

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2018-12891

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
xenxen
debiandebian linux

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • debian debian linux8.0
  • debian debian linux9.0
  • xen xenup to 4.10.1 inclusive

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Alpine:v3.10xenbefore 4.11.0-r04.11.0-r0
Alpine:v3.5xenbefore 4.7.6-r04.7.6-r0
Alpine:v3.6xenbefore 4.8.4-r04.8.4-r0
Alpine:v3.7xenbefore 4.9.3-r04.9.3-r0
Alpine:v3.8xenbefore 4.10.1-r34.10.1-r3
Debian:12xenbefore 4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u94.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
Debian:8xenbefore 4.4.4lts4-0+deb8u14.4.4lts4-0+deb8u1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP3xenbefore 4.9.2_08-3.35.24.9.2_08-3.35.2
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15xenbefore 4.10.1_06-3.3.14.10.1_06-3.3.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 11 SP3xenbefore 4.2.5_21-45.25.14.2.5_21-45.25.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12-LTSSxenbefore 4.4.4_34-22.71.24.4.4_34-22.71.2
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1xenbefore 4.5.5_24-22.52.34.5.5_24-22.52.3
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 11 SP4xenbefore 4.4.4_34-61.32.14.4.4_34-61.32.1
SUSE:OpenStack Cloud 7xenbefore 4.7.6_02-43.36.14.7.6_02-43.36.1

Same product

xen: all records

Other 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, whi
    41Plan
  • 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_host
    41Plan
  • 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

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2018-10981May 10, 2018 · An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.10.x allowing x86 HVM guest OS users to cause a denial of service (host OS infinite loop) in situat
    26Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2018-10982May 10, 2018 · An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.10.x allowing x86 HVM guest OS users to cause a denial of service (unexpectedly high interrupt numb
    35Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2018-12892Jul 2, 2018 · An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x.
    40Plan

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
alpine:xen4.11.0-r0 · Alpine:v3.10Package registry (OSV)
debian:xen4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9 · Debian:12Package registry (OSV)
suse:xen4.10.1_06-3.3.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15Package 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.

EPSS, last 120 days

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 researchers

Finders, 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.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted

Impact can extend beyond the vulnerable component (scope changes).

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

—

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/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

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Show all references (7 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records