Resource exhaustion in Xen

CVE-2020-29568

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Some OSes (such as Linux, FreeBSD, and NetBSD) are processing watch events using a single thread. If the events are received faster than the thread is able to handle, they will get queued. As the queue is unbounded, a guest may be able to trigger an OOM in the backend. All systems with a FreeBSD, Linux, or NetBSD (any version) dom0 are vulnerable.

EPSS: 0.003 (27.4th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

  • cve@mitre.org (Patch, x_refsource_MISC, Vendor Advisory)
  • cve@mitre.org (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_DEBIAN)
  • cve@mitre.org (mailing-list, x_refsource_MLIST, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
  • cve@mitre.org (mailing-list, x_refsource_MLIST, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
  • cve@mitre.org (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_GENTOO)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-29568?
CVE-2020-29568 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Xen, classified under Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2020-12-15.
How severe is CVE-2020-29568?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.