-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Xen Security Advisory CVE-2018-19966 / XSA-280 version 4 Fix for XSA-240 conflicts with shadow paging UPDATES IN VERSION 4 ==================== Normalize version tags ISSUE DESCRIPTION ================= The fix for XSA-240 introduced a new field into the control structure associated with each page of RAM. This field was added to a union, another member of which is used when Xen uses shadow paging for the guest. During migration, or with the L1TF (XSA-273) mitigation for PV guests in effect, the two uses conflict. IMPACT ====== A malicious or buggy x86 PV guest may cause Xen to crash, resulting in a DoS (Denial of Service) affecting the entire host. Privilege escalation as well as information leaks cannot be ruled out. VULNERABLE SYSTEMS ================== All Xen versions from at least 3.2 onwards are vulnerable. Earlier versions have not been checked. Only x86 systems are affected. ARM systems are not affected. Only Xen versions with the XSA-240 fixes applied are vulnerable. Only Xen versions which permit linear page table use by PV guests are vulnerable. Only x86 PV guests can leverage this vulnerability. x86 HVM guests cannot leverage this vulnerability. MITIGATION ========== Not permitting linear page table use by PV guests avoids the vulnerability. This can be done both at build time, by turning off the PV_LINEAR_PT configure option, or at runtime, by passing specifying "pv-linear-pt=0" on the hypervisor command line. On systems where the guest kernel is controlled by the host rather than guest administrator, running only kernels which have themselves been hardened against L1TF _and_ avoiding live migrating or snapshotting PV guests will generally prevent this issue being triggered. However untrusted guest administrators can still trigger it unless further steps are taken to prevent them from loading code into the kernel (e.g. by disabling loadable modules etc) or from using other mechanisms which allow them to run code at kernel privilege. Running only HVM guests will avoid this vulnerability. CREDITS ======= This issue was discovered by the security team of Prgmr.com. RESOLUTION ========== Applying the appropriate pair of attached patches resolves this issue. xsa280-?.patch xen-unstable xsa280-1.patch, xsa280-4.11-2.patch Xen 4.11.x xsa280-1.patch, xsa280-4.10-2.patch Xen 4.10.x xsa280-4.9-1.patch, xsa280-4.10-2.patch Xen 4.9.x, Xen 4.8.x xsa280-4.9-1.patch, xsa280-4.7-2.patch Xen 4.7.x $ sha256sum xsa280* ff0b376b9e2ec16f7c15b144d4d38375d6f6b4019aa9c17f6b80f9dfe40319ef xsa280.meta 41b2b91dbabbf2048c790c5934ab696ef53932ff98d1069eb7c7ae52e61cd44b xsa280-1.patch d46e46a6e706e0d3416d40ed12227223f7e8f825dfc63ed203c1df115976e8a1 xsa280-2.patch 163eaf2e16d5cc314a81fa1254eb2809674001b2329c41556a078b7f94e72ced xsa280-4.7-2.patch 22e9d29f316356341db40c743ca59f9bb9d783a58fb6429d5badf57a77b5f34a xsa280-4.9-1.patch ff0a839dbd9347ec88aaeb7ef1145d0cd9029a19c6a478088c63c0959ba0e740 xsa280-4.10-2.patch 87940f3b84d0adfd89e1b2bc1a872ae2948e1621e4994e7879b77e327b0136b5 xsa280-4.11-2.patch $ DEPLOYMENT DURING EMBARGO ========================= Deployment of the patches and/or mitigations described above (or others which are substantially similar) EXCEPT the linear page table disabling one is permitted during the embargo, even on public-facing systems with untrusted guest users and administrators. However deployment of the linear page table disabling mitigation is NOT PERMITTED (except where all the affected systems and VMs are administered and used only by organisations which are members of the Xen Project Security Issues Predisclosure List). Specifically, deployment on public cloud systems is NOT permitted. This is because altering the set of features usable in a guest in connection with a security issue would be a user-visible change which could lead to the rediscovery of the vulnerability. Also: Distribution of updated software is prohibited (except to other members of the predisclosure list). Predisclosure list members who wish to deploy significantly different patches and/or mitigations, please contact the Xen Project Security Team. (Note: this during-embargo deployment notice is retained in post-embargo publicly released Xen Project advisories, even though it is then no longer applicable. This is to enable the community to have oversight of the Xen Project Security Team's decisionmaking.) For more information about permissible uses of embargoed information, consult the Xen Project community's agreed Security Policy: http://www.xenproject.org/security-policy.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQFABAEBCAAqFiEEI+MiLBRfRHX6gGCng/4UyVfoK9kFAmV8b/kMHHBncEB4ZW4u b3JnAAoJEIP+FMlX6CvZRhoH/2ojfqlyaF6ihURiQLlg95g8ilSq75ddrG2MDcRB KK8uC02OPMwCVxkvdhq/7+zUOEx6ywJb1MOe7Ct7dFI6i49SuYe9OiFbEE6pMy1R Wl2UFp2NbqAsxbWMaB8+6ZijzQVDu/qM6ce5TXLtQfBCSYPQpdGCB+5QAeHRHji6 iapv2TzIwpqx+enr0xaTmT17dCogHxJYlsemfC8R9BmCP/DD/s9BXfIHddWIp22K EO2Af5CHBE9hz7TjDVobHcumR3fAJ9fiRKhfYfrfe/Km9Po4kzhpY0ZTxV+gM5fu uJFZbqcjh0YLxRkrWnH+0OWvG4ZWaVVjkIPw4mdcdh48reQ= =Z+OV -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----