CVE-2023-46842

x86 HVM hypercalls may trigger Xen bug check

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: May 16, 2024 at 01:39 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:31 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsFedoraXen

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Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 9%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Xen· Xenwordpress-plugin
95%
v ≥ 3.2.0
Vendor states this is fixed in consult Xen advisory XSA-454 (unknown)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (4)

PatchVendor Advisory
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-454.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/D5OK6MH75S7YWD34EWW7QIZTS627RIE3/
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/RYAZ7P6YFJ2E3FHKAGIKHWS46KYMMTZH/

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

6.5MEDIUMCISA-ADP
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-843

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