An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.13.x, allowing guest OS users to cause a denial…
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Will not fix Red Hat: no fix planned
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.13.x, allowing guest OS users to cause a denial of service because of bad continuation handling in GNTTABOP_copy. Grant table operations are expected to return 0 for success, and a negative number for errors. The fix for CVE-2017-12135 introduced a path through grant copy handling where success may be returned to the caller without any action taken. In particular, the status fields of individual operations are left uninitialised, and may result in errant behaviour in the caller of GNTTABOP_copy. A buggy or malicious guest can construct its grant table in such a way that, when a backend domain tries to copy a grant, it hits the incorrect exit path. This returns success to the caller without doing anything, which may cause crashes or other incorrect behaviour.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 4
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | up to 4.13.0 | Vulnerable | Xen |
| cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.13.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.13.0 rc1 | Vulnerable | Xen |
| cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.13.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.13.0 rc2 | Vulnerable | Xen |
| cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 32 | Vulnerable | Fedoraproject |
- cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions up to 4.13.0 Vulnerable ·Xen
- cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.13.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 4.13.0 rc1 Vulnerable ·Xen
- cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.13.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 4.13.0 rc2 Vulnerable ·Xen
- cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 32 Vulnerable ·Fedoraproject
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2020-11742
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-q23v-6m98-94w9
References
Patch 3
Sources
- CVE-2020-11742 · CVE Program
- CVE-2020-11742 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-q23v-6m98-94w9 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2020-11742 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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