OS Command Injection Affecting xen package, versions <4.13.0-r0


Severity

Recommended
0.0
medium
0
10

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Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.42% (74th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-ALPINE316-XEN-2845572
  • published21 Jul 2020
  • disclosed31 Oct 2019

Introduced: 31 Oct 2019

CVE-2019-18424  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-78  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Alpine:3.16 xen to version 4.13.0-r0 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream xen package and not the xen package as distributed by Alpine. See How to fix? for Alpine:3.16 relevant fixed versions and status.

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing attackers to gain host OS privileges via DMA in a situation where an untrusted domain has access to a physical device. This occurs because passed through PCI devices may corrupt host memory after deassignment. When a PCI device is assigned to an untrusted domain, it is possible for that domain to program the device to DMA to an arbitrary address. The IOMMU is used to protect the host from malicious DMA by making sure that the device addresses can only target memory assigned to the guest. However, when the guest domain is torn down, or the device is deassigned, the device is assigned back to dom0, thus allowing any in-flight DMA to potentially target critical host data. An untrusted domain with access to a physical device can DMA into host memory, leading to privilege escalation. Only systems where guests are given direct access to physical devices capable of DMA (PCI pass-through) are vulnerable. Systems which do not use PCI pass-through are not vulnerable.

CVSS Scores

version 3.1