CVE-2019-18423

Published Oct 31, 2019

Last updated a year ago

Overview

Description
An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing ARM guest OS users to cause a denial of service via a XENMEM_add_to_physmap hypercall. p2m->max_mapped_gfn is used by the functions p2m_resolve_translation_fault() and p2m_get_entry() to sanity check guest physical frame. The rest of the code in the two functions will assume that there is a valid root table and check that with BUG_ON(). The function p2m_get_root_pointer() will ignore the unused top bits of a guest physical frame. This means that the function p2m_set_entry() will alias the frame. However, p2m->max_mapped_gfn will be updated using the original frame. It would be possible to set p2m->max_mapped_gfn high enough to cover a frame that would lead p2m_get_root_pointer() to return NULL in p2m_get_entry() and p2m_resolve_translation_fault(). Additionally, the sanity check on p2m->max_mapped_gfn is off-by-one allowing "highest mapped + 1" to be considered valid. However, p2m_get_root_pointer() will return NULL. The problem could be triggered with a specially crafted hypercall XENMEM_add_to_physmap{, _batch} followed by an access to an address (via hypercall or direct access) that passes the sanity check but cause p2m_get_root_pointer() to return NULL. A malicious guest administrator may cause a hypervisor crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS). Xen version 4.8 and newer are vulnerable. Only Arm systems are vulnerable. x86 systems are not affected.
Source
cve@mitre.org
NVD status
Modified

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
8.8
Impact score
5.9
Exploitability score
2.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity
HIGH

CVSS 2.0

Type
Primary
Base score
8.5
Impact score
10
Exploitability score
6.8
Vector string
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-193

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations