CVE-2020-29486: Medium severity xen xapi vulnerability

Published Dec 15, 2020
·
Updated

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Affected Software

5 affected componentsFixes available
debian/xen
4.11.4+107-gef32c7afa2-14.14.6-14.14.5+94-ge49571868d-14.17.1+2-gb773c48e36-14.17.2+55-g0b56bed864-1
XEN Xen<=4.14.0
Debian Debian Linux=10.0
Fedoraproject Fedora=32
Fedoraproject Fedora=33

Event History

Dec 15, 2020
CVE Published
via MITRE·06:00 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·06:00 PM
Description

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2020-29486?

CVE-2020-29486 has a high severity due to the potential for denial of service and resource exhaustion in Xen.

2

How do I fix CVE-2020-29486?

To fix CVE-2020-29486, upgrade to the patched versions of Xen stated in the vulnerability advisory.

3

What versions of Xen are affected by CVE-2020-29486?

CVE-2020-29486 affects Xen versions up to and including 4.14.0.

4

What types of systems are impacted by CVE-2020-29486?

CVE-2020-29486 impacts systems using Xen, including Debian and Fedora distributions.

5

What implications does CVE-2020-29486 have for resource management in Xen?

CVE-2020-29486 allows guests to impact the resource quotas of other guests, potentially leading to service disruptions.

Contact

SecAlerts Pty Ltd.
132 Wickham Terrace
Fortitude Valley,
QLD 4006, Australia
info@secalerts.co
By using SecAlerts services, you agree to our services end-user license agreement. This website is safeguarded by reCAPTCHA and governed by the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. All names, logos, and brands of products are owned by their respective owners, and any usage of these names, logos, and brands for identification purposes only does not imply endorsement. If you possess any content that requires removal, please get in touch with us.
© 2026 SecAlerts Pty Ltd.
ABN: 70 645 966 203, ACN: 645 966 203