CVE-2019-18423

HIGH

Xen 4.8-4.12.x - Denial of Service via XENMEM_add_to_physmap Hypercall

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing ARM guest OS users to cause a denial of service via a XENMEM_add_to_physmap hypercall. p2m->max_mapped_gfn is used by the functions p2m_resolve_translation_fault() and p2m_get_entry() to sanity check guest physical frame. The rest of the code in the two functions will assume that there is a valid root table and check that with BUG_ON(). The function p2m_get_root_pointer() will ignore the unused top bits of a guest physical frame. This means that the function p2m_set_entry() will alias the frame. However, p2m->max_mapped_gfn will be updated using the original frame. It would be possible to set p2m->max_mapped_gfn high enough to cover a frame that would lead p2m_get_root_pointer() to return NULL in p2m_get_entry() and p2m_resolve_translation_fault(). Additionally, the sanity check on p2m->max_mapped_gfn is off-by-one allowing "highest mapped + 1" to be considered valid. However, p2m_get_root_pointer() will return NULL. The problem could be triggered with a specially crafted hypercall XENMEM_add_to_physmap{, _batch} followed by an access to an address (via hypercall or direct access) that passes the sanity check but cause p2m_get_root_pointer() to return NULL. A malicious guest administrator may cause a hypervisor crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS). Xen version 4.8 and newer are vulnerable. Only Arm systems are vulnerable. x86 systems are not affected.

References (8)

Core 8
Core References
Patch, Vendor Advisory x_refsource_misc
http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-301.html
Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory mailing-list x_refsource_mlist
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/10/31/4
Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory x_refsource_debian
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4602
Mailing List, Third Party Advisory mailing-list x_refsource_bugtraq
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/21
Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory x_refsource_gentoo
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-56

Scores

CVSS v3 8.8
EPSS 0.0206
EPSS Percentile 78.8%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-193
Status published
Products (6)
debian/debian_linux 9.0
debian/debian_linux 10.0
fedoraproject/fedora 29
fedoraproject/fedora 30
fedoraproject/fedora 31
xen/xen 4.8 - 4.12.1
Published Oct 31, 2019
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026