The Ocaml xenstored implementation (oxenstored) in Xen 4.1.x, 4.2.x, and 4.3.x allows local guest domains to cause a denial of service (domain shutdown) via a large message reply.

ISSUE DESCRIPTION =================

Guests are currently permitted to modify all of the (writable) bits in the PCI command register of devices passed through to them. This in particular allows them to disable memory and I/O decoding on the device unless the device is an SR-IOV virtual function, in which case subsequent accesses to the respective MMIO or I/O port ranges would - - on PCI Express devices - lead to Unsupported Request responses. The treatmeant of such errors is platform specific.

IMPACT ======

In the event that the platform surfaces aforementioned UR responses as Non-Maskable Interrupts, and either the OS is configured to treat NMIs as fatal or (e.g. via ACPI's APEI) the platform tells the OS to treat these errors as fatal, the host would crash, leading to a Denial of Service.

VULNERABLE SYSTEMS ==================

Xen versions 3.3 and onwards are vulnerable due to supporting PCI pass-through. Upstream Linux versions 3.1 and onwards are vulnerable due to supporting PCI backend functionality. Other Linux versions as well as other OS versions may be vulnerable too.

Any domain which is given access to a non-SR-IOV virtual function PCI Express device can take advantage of this vulnerability.

MITIGATION ==========

This issue can be avoided by not assigning PCI Express devices other than SR-IOV virtual functions to untrusted guests.

RESOLUTION ==========

Applying the attached patch resolves this issue for upstream Linux.

xsa120.patch Linux 3.19

$ sha256sum xsa120.patch 5167215293d4a8a05f090fca5b20eb5878213a0158a0e7a12c245553db81a855 xsa120.patch

Last updated 24 July 2024

Xen 4.2.x, 4.1.x, and 4.0, when using Intel VT-d for PCI passthrough, does not properly configure VT-d when supporting a device that is behind a legacy PCI Bridge, which allows local guests to cause a denial of service to other guests by injecting an interrupt.

Xen 3.0.3 through 4.1.x (possibly 4.1.6.1), 4.2.x (possibly 4.2.3), and 4.3.x (possibly 4.3.1) does not properly prevent access to hypercalls, which allows local guest users to gain privileges via a crafted application running in ring 1 or 2.

The XENDOMCTLgetmemlist hypercall in Xen 3.4.x through 4.3.x (possibly 4.3.1) does not always obtain the pagealloclock and mmrwlock in the same order, which allows local guest administrators to cause a denial of service (host deadlock).

The outs instruction emulation in Xen 3.1.x, 4.2.x, 4.3.x, and earlier, when using FS: or GS: segment override, uses an uninitialized variable as a segment base, which allows local 64-bit PV guests to obtain sensitive information (hypervisor stack content) via unspecified vectors related to stale data in a segment register.

The xenlight library (libxl) in Xen 4.0.x through 4.2.x, when IOMMU is disabled, provides access to a busmastering-capable PCI passthrough device before the IOMMU setup is complete, which allows local HVM guest domains to gain privileges or cause a denial of service via a DMA instruction.

The fbld instruction emulation in Xen 3.3.x through 4.3.x does not use the correct variable for the source effective address, which allows local HVM guests to obtain hypervisor stack information by reading the values used by the instruction.

Xen 4.3.x and earlier does not properly handle certain errors, which allows local HVM guests to obtain hypervisor stack memory via a (1) port or (2) memory mapped I/O write or (3) other unspecified operations related to addresses without associated memory.

The Intel VT-d Interrupt Remapping engine in Xen 3.3.x through 4.3.x allows local guests to cause a denial of service (kernel panic) via a malformed Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) from a PCI device that is bus mastering capable that triggers a System Error Reporting (SERR) Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI).

The libxenlight (libxl) toolstack library in Xen 4.0.x, 4.1.x, and 4.2.x uses weak permissions for xenstore keys for paravirtualised and emulated serial console devices, which allows local guest administrators to modify the xenstore value via unspecified vectors.

The vmxsetucmode function in Xen 3.3 through 4.3, when disabling caches, allows local HVM guests with access to memory mapped I/O regions to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption and possibly hypervisor or guest kernel panic) via a crafted GFN range.

Xen 4.0.2 through 4.0.4, 4.1.x, and 4.2.x allows local PV guest users to cause a denial of service (hypervisor crash) via certain bit combinations to the XSETBV instruction.

Xen 4.0.x, 4.1.x, and 4.2.x does not properly restrict the contents of a XRSTOR, which allows local PV guest users to cause a denial of service (unhandled exception and hypervisor crash) via unspecified vectors.

Xen 4.0.x, 4.1.x, and 4.2.x, when running on AMD64 processors, only save/restore the FOP, FIP, and FDP x87 registers in FXSAVE/FXRSTOR when an exception is pending, which allows one domain to determine portions of the state of floating point instructions of other domains, which can be leveraged to obtain sensitive information such as cryptographic keys, a similar vulnerability to CVE-2006-1056. NOTE: this is the documented behavior of AMD64 processors, but it is inconsistent with Intel processors in a security-relevant fashion that was not addressed by the kernels.

Buffer overflow in the Python bindings for the xcvcpusetaffinity call in Xen 4.0.x, 4.1.x, and 4.2.x allows local administrators with permissions to configure VCPU affinity to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and xend toolstack crash) and possibly gain privileges via a crafted cpumap.

Xen 4.2.x, 4.1.x, and earlier, when the hypervisor is running "under memory pressure" and the Xen Security Module (XSM) is enabled, uses the wrong ordering of operations when extending the per-domain event channel tracking table, which causes a use-after-free and allows local guest kernels to inject arbitrary events and gain privileges via unspecified vectors.

Xen 4.x, when using Intel VT-d for a bus mastering capable PCI device, does not properly check the source when accessing a bridge device's interrupt remapping table entries for MSI interrupts, which allows local guest domains to cause a denial of service (interrupt injection) via unspecified vectors.

Certain page table manipulation operations in Xen 4.1.x, 4.2.x, and earlier are not preemptible, which allows local PV kernels to cause a denial of service via vectors related to "deep page table traversal."

Xen 3.1 through 4.x, when running 64-bit hosts on Intel CPUs, does not clear the NT flag when using an IRET after a SYSENTER instruction, which allows PV guest users to cause a denial of service (hypervisor crash) by triggering a #GP fault, which is not properly handled by another IRET instruction.

Xen 4.0.x and 4.1.x incorrectly releases a grant reference when releasing a non-v1, non-transitive grant, which allows local guest administrators to cause a denial of service (host crash), obtain sensitive information, or possibly have other impacts via unspecified vectors.

Xen 4.2.x and 4.1.x does not properly restrict access to IRQs, which allows local stub domain clients to gain access to IRQs and cause a denial of service via vectors related to "passed-through IRQs or PCI devices."

oxenstored in Xen 4.1.x, Xen 4.2.x, and xen-unstable does not properly consider the state of the Xenstore ring during read operations, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (daemon crash and host-control outage, or memory consumption) or obtain sensitive control-plane data by leveraging guest administrative access.

The AMD IOMMU support in Xen 4.2.x, 4.1.x, 3.3, and other versions, when using AMD-Vi for PCI passthrough, uses the same interrupt remapping table for the host and all guests, which allows guests to cause a denial of service by injecting an interrupt into other guests.

The dommuupdate function in arch/x86/mm.c in Xen 3.2.x through 4.4.x does not properly manage page references, which allows remote domains to cause a denial of service by leveraging control over an HVM guest and a crafted MMUMACHPHYSUPDATE.

The compatibility mode hypercall argument translation in Xen 3.3.x through 4.4.x, when running on a 64-bit hypervisor, allows local 32-bit HVM guests to cause a denial of service (host crash) via vectors involving altering the high halves of registers while in 64-bit mode.

The dommuupdate function in arch/x86/mm.c in Xen 4.x through 4.4.x does not properly restrict updates to only PV page tables, which allows remote PV guests to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference) by leveraging hardware emulation services for HVM guests using Hardware Assisted Paging (HAP).

arch/x86/x86emulate/x86emulate.c in Xen 3.2.1 through 4.4.x does not properly check privileges, which allows local HVM guest users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (crash) via a crafted (1) CALL, (2) JMP, (3) RETF, (4) LCALL, (5) LJMP, or (6) LRET far branch instruction.

The x86emulate function in arch/x86/x86emulate/x86emulate.c in Xen 3.3.x through 4.4.x does not check the supervisor mode permissions for instructions that generate software interrupts, which allows local HVM guest users to cause a denial of service (guest crash) via unspecified vectors.