CVE-2020-25597

CVE Details

Release Date:

2020-09-23

Description

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. There is mishandling of the constraint that once-valid event channels may not turn invalid. Logic in the handling of event channel operations in Xen assumes that an event channel, once valid, will not become invalid over the life time of a guest. However, operations like the resetting of all event channels may involve decreasing one of the bounds checked when determining validity. This may lead to bug checks triggering, crashing the host. An unprivileged guest may be able to crash Xen, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS) for the entire system. All Xen versions from 4.4 onwards are vulnerable. Xen versions 4.3 and earlier are not vulnerable. Only systems with untrusted guests permitted to create more than the default number of event channels are vulnerable. This number depends on the architecture and type of guest. For 32-bit x86 PV guests, this is 1023; for 64-bit x86 PV guests, and for all ARM guests, this number is 4095. Systems where untrusted guests are limited to fewer than this number are not vulnerable. Note that xl and libxl limit max_event_channels to 1023 by default, so systems using exclusively xl, libvirt+libxl, or their own toolstack based on libxl, and not explicitly setting max_event_channels, are not vulnerable.

See more information about CVE-2020-25597 from MITRE CVE dictionary and NIST NVD

CVSS v3.0 metrics

NOTE: The following CVSS v3.0 metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

Base Score:	6.5	Base Metrics:	AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Access Vector:	Local network	Attack Complexity:	Low
Privileges Required:	Low	User Interaction:	None
Scope:	Changed	Confidentiality Impact:	None
Integrity Impact:	None	Availability Impact:	High

Errata information

Platform	Errata	Release Date
Oracle VM version 3 (xen)	OVMSA-2021-0014	2021-04-27
Oracle VM version 3.4 (xen)	OVMSA-2021-0014	2021-04-27

This page is generated automatically and has not been checked for errors or omissions. For clarification or corrections please contact the Oracle Linux ULN team