CVEvulnerability

CVE-2019-18424

6.8 MEDIUM Published 2019-10-31 Modified 2026-06-17 Official page ↗
Status
Modified
Published
2019-10-31
Last modified
2026-06-17
Assigner
[email protected]
CVSS 3.1 ([email protected])
6.8 MEDIUM — CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0 ([email protected])
6.9 MEDIUM — AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Weaknesses
CWE-78

Description

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing attackers to gain host OS privileges via DMA in a situation where an untrusted domain has access to a physical device. This occurs because passed through PCI devices may corrupt host memory after deassignment. When a PCI device is assigned to an untrusted domain, it is possible for that domain to program the device to DMA to an arbitrary address. The IOMMU is used to protect the host from malicious DMA by making sure that the device addresses can only target memory assigned to the guest. However, when the guest domain is torn down, or the device is deassigned, the device is assigned back to dom0, thus allowing any in-flight DMA to potentially target critical host data. An untrusted domain with access to a physical device can DMA into host memory, leading to privilege escalation. Only systems where guests are given direct access to physical devices capable of DMA (PCI pass-through) are vulnerable. Systems which do not use PCI pass-through are not vulnerable.

Affected configurations

• xen xen (<= 4.12.1) • debian debian linux 9.0 • debian debian linux 10.0 • fedoraproject fedora 29 • fedoraproject fedora 30 • fedoraproject fedora 31 • opensuse leap 15.0

Related

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command weakness

References