CVE-2020-25597: Medium severity xen xapi vulnerability

Published Sep 23, 2020
·
Updated

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 maxeventchannels to 1023 by default, so systems using exclusively xl, libvirt+libxl, or their own toolstack based on libxl, and not explicitly setting maxeventchannels, are not vulnerable.

Affected Software

3 affected componentsFixes available
debian/xen
4.14.6-14.14.5+94-ge49571868d-14.17.5+23-ga4e5191dc0-1+deb12u14.17.5+23-ga4e5191dc0-14.20.0-1
XEN Xen>=4.4.0<=4.14.0
Fedoraproject Fedora=31

Event History

Sep 23, 2020
CVE Published
via MITRE·09:05 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·09:05 PM
Description
Jan 11, 2024
Data Sourced
via Launchpad·11:46 PM
Description
Sep 16, 2024
Data Sourced
via Ubuntu·02:25 AM
RemedyDescriptionSeverityAffected Software
Jan 30, 2025
Data Sourced
via Debian·02:49 AM
DescriptionAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the vulnerability ID for this issue?

The vulnerability ID for this issue is CVE-2020-25597.

2

What is the severity of CVE-2020-25597?

The severity of CVE-2020-25597 has not been specified in the provided information.

3

What is the affected software for CVE-2020-25597?

The affected software for CVE-2020-25597 is Xen versions up to 4.14.x.

4

How can I fix CVE-2020-25597?

To fix CVE-2020-25597, you should update Xen to version 4.11.4+107-gef32c7afa2-1, 4.14.5+94-ge49571868d-1, 4.17.1+2-gb773c48e36-1, or 4.17.2-1, depending on your distribution.

5

Where can I find more information about CVE-2020-25597?

You can find more information about CVE-2020-25597 at the following references: [XSA Advisory 338](https://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-338.html), [Fedora Package Announce](https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/4JRXMKEMQRQYWYEPHVBIWUEAVQ3LU4FN/), [Fedora Package Announce](https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DA633Y3G5KX7MKRN4PFEGM3IVTJMBEOM/)

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