CVE-2020-15563
Description
An invalid pointer dereference flaw was found in Xen. A malicious or buggy HVM guest may cause the hypervisor to crash, resulting in Denial of Service (DoS) affecting the entire host.
Statement
Xen versions 4.7 and earlier are not affected by this flaw. Arm systems are not affected, only x86 HVM guests using shadow paging can leverage the vulnerability. In addition there needs to be an entity actively monitoring a guest's video frame buffer (typically for display purposes) in order for such a guest to be able to leverage the vulnerability. x86 PV guests as well as x86 HVM guest using hardware assisted paging (HAP) cannot leverage the vulnerability.
Mitigation
For HVM guest explicitly configured to use shadow paging (e.g. via the `hap=0` xl domain configuration file parameter), changing to HAP (e.g. by setting `hap=1`) will avoid exposing the vulnerability to those guests. HAP is the default (in upstream Xen), where the hardware supports it; so this mitigation is only applicable if HAP has been disabled by configuration.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.6 | 6.5 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Changed | Changed | N/A |
| Confidentiality | None | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
If the untrusted pointer is used in a read operation, an attacker might be able to read sensitive portions of memory.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
If the untrusted pointer references a memory location that is not accessible to the product, or points to a location that is "malformed" or larger than expected by a read or write operation, the application may terminate unexpectedly.
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Modify Memory
If the untrusted pointer is used in a function call, or points to unexpected data in a write operation, then code execution may be possible.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank the Xen project for reporting this issue.
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