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4.9

Xen hypervisor can be hung by a malicious guest

CVE-2015-4164 · published 11 years ago
Summary

Versions 3.1 through 4.5 of the Xen hypervisor have a coding error in a routine that handles a special guest request. A guest with administrative rights can trigger the error and make the whole system become unresponsive. Update to a later Xen release or apply the provided patch to stop the problem.

What to do

The CVE record does not list a fixed version. Check the vendor's site or the advisory links below - a fix may already be released.

Affected software
VendorProductAffected versions
xen xen 3.1.3
3.1.4
3.2.0
3.2.1
3.2.2
3.2.3
3.3.0
3.3.1
3.3.2
3.4.0
3.4.1
3.4.2
24 more version ranges
cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:3.1.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Original advisory text
The compat_iret function in Xen 3.1 through 4.5 iterates the wrong way through a loop, which allows local 32-bit PV guest administrators to cause a denial of service (large loop and system hang) vi...
The compat_iret function in Xen 3.1 through 4.5 iterates the wrong way through a loop, which allows local 32-bit PV guest administrators to cause a denial of service (large loop and system hang) via a hypercall_iret call with EFLAGS.VM set.
References
Fix within
Internet-facing 60 days
Internal At next upgrade
  • Not known to be exploited
  • Needs hands-on effort to exploit (estimated)
  • Gives an attacker partial control (estimated)
Severity
4.9 Medium
Exploitation
<1% chance of attack within 30 days
Type
CWE-399Resource Management Errors
Timeline
Published15 Jun 2015
Updated4 Nov 2026
First seen29 Sep 2026
Sources
CVE-2015-4164 · NVD
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