CVE-2023-46842 Affecting xen package, versions <4.16.6-r0


Severity

Recommended
low

Based on default assessment until relevant scores are available.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.04% (11th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-ALPINE316-XEN-6593969
  • published10 Apr 2024
  • disclosed16 May 2024

Introduced: 10 Apr 2024

CVE-2023-46842  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Alpine:3.16 xen to version 4.16.6-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.

Unlike 32-bit PV guests, HVM guests may switch freely between 64-bit and other modes. This in particular means that they may set registers used to pass 32-bit-mode hypercall arguments to values outside of the range 32-bit code would be able to set them to.

When processing of hypercalls takes a considerable amount of time, the hypervisor may choose to invoke a hypercall continuation. Doing so involves putting (perhaps updated) hypercall arguments in respective registers. For guests not running in 64-bit mode this further involves a certain amount of translation of the values.

Unfortunately internal sanity checking of these translated values assumes high halves of registers to always be clear when invoking a hypercall. When this is found not to be the case, it triggers a consistency check in the hypervisor and causes a crash.

CVSS Scores

version 3.1