Information

Files

Advisory

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

            Xen Security Advisory CVE-2020-15564 / XSA-327
                               version 3

         Missing alignment check in VCPUOP_register_vcpu_info

UPDATES IN VERSION 3
====================

Public release.

ISSUE DESCRIPTION
=================

The hypercall VCPUOP_register_vcpu_info is used by a guest to register
a shared region with the hypervisor. The region will be mapped into Xen address
space so it can be directly accessed.

On Arm, the region is accessed with instructions which require a specific
alignment. Unfortunately, there is no check that the address provided by
the guest will be correctly aligned.

As a result, a malicious guest could cause a hypervisor crash by passing
a misaligned address.

IMPACT
======

A malicious guest administrator may cause a hypervisor crash, resulting in a
Denial of Service (DoS).

VULNERABLE SYSTEMS
==================

All Xen versions are vulnerable.

Only Arm systems are vulnerable.  x86 systems are not affected.

MITIGATION
==========

There is no mitigation.

CREDITS
=======

This issue was discovered by Julien Grall of Amazon.

RESOLUTION
==========

Applying the attached patch resolves this issue.

Note that patches for released versions are generally prepared to
apply to the stable branches, and may not apply cleanly to the most
recent release tarball.  Downstreams are encouraged to update to the
tip of the stable branch before applying these patches.

xsa327.patch           Xen 4.9 - xen-unstable

$ sha256sum xsa327*
f046eefcc1368708bd1fafc88e063d3dbc5c4cdb593d68b3b04917c6cdb7bcb5  xsa327.meta
1d057695d5b74ce2857204103e943caeaf773bc4fb9d91ea78016e01a9147ed7  xsa327.patch
$

DEPLOYMENT DURING EMBARGO
=========================

Deployment of the patch and/or mitigations described above (or
others which are substantially similar) is permitted during the
embargo, even on public-facing systems with untrusted guest users and
administrators.

But: 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is then no longer applicable.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/4UyVfoK9kFAl8EaVAMHHBncEB4ZW4u
b3JnAAoJEIP+FMlX6CvZcqIIAKpb992pMq1jFStIGPhk6HsaIhxVEGep67eJHq9d
TMaFiyBix125djY0zV8KaznmZmRpM2pNKVsIkGe1XHgtEMcWgMAYARejJLRC4UnW
xHhpunI7rJMQc1vL5ZGxAFbVYF6U/PX0rwESwQb2/Rt0eLBTAmH4m25TQiSEnrkM
3C4Dbk3puCbaeB7VGiyccK07hh6qQhEO8s1FhZTNVTaqqcNWZYqy/SbmRYHiT/in
2dK6XOiBgRhHnjsDDoXj5abSMb00KnJ9PkWu8RC2b7+BVZJUii1557T8zpDo9Fyl
CJ3YXrekd+gQSFxgwCts00BbLr2NUf3uqEtpY1EEV7UKmvQ=
=fPiG
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----