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xenXen ProjectXSA-334
HistorySep 22, 2020 - 12:00 p.m.

Missing unlock in XENMEM_acquire_resource error path

2020-09-2212:00:00
Xen Project
xenbits.xen.org
27

5.5 Medium

CVSS3

Attack Vector

LOCAL

Attack Complexity

LOW

Privileges Required

LOW

User Interaction

NONE

Scope

UNCHANGED

Confidentiality Impact

NONE

Integrity Impact

NONE

Availability Impact

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

2.1 Low

CVSS2

Access Vector

Access Complexity

Authentication

NONE

Confidentiality Impact

NONE

Integrity Impact

NONE

Availability Impact

PARTIAL

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

0.0004 Low

EPSS

Percentile

14.1%

ISSUE DESCRIPTION

The RCU (Read, Copy, Update) mechanism is a synchronisation primitive.
A buggy error path in the XENMEM_acquire_resource exits without releasing an RCU reference, which is conceptually similar to forgetting to unlock a spinlock.

IMPACT

A buggy or malicious HVM stubdomain can cause an RCU reference to be leaked. This causes subsequent administration operations, (e.g. CPU offline) to livelock, resulting in a host Denial of Service.

VULNERABLE SYSTEMS

The buggy codepath has been present since Xen 4.12. Xen 4.14 and later are vulnerable to the DoS. The side effects are believed to be benign on Xen 4.12 and 4.13, but patches are provided nevertheless.
The vulnerability can generally only be exploited by x86 HVM VMs, as these are generally the only type of VM which have a Qemu stubdomain. x86 PV and PVH domains, as well as ARM VMs typically don’t use a stubdomain.
Only VMs using HVM stubdomains can exploit the vulnerability. VMs using PV stubdomains, or with emulators running in dom0 cannot exploit the vulnerability.

CPENameOperatorVersion
xenge4.14

5.5 Medium

CVSS3

Attack Vector

LOCAL

Attack Complexity

LOW

Privileges Required

LOW

User Interaction

NONE

Scope

UNCHANGED

Confidentiality Impact

NONE

Integrity Impact

NONE

Availability Impact

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

2.1 Low

CVSS2

Access Vector

Access Complexity

Authentication

NONE

Confidentiality Impact

NONE

Integrity Impact

NONE

Availability Impact

PARTIAL

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

0.0004 Low

EPSS

Percentile

14.1%