CVE-2018-12891
6.5 · MEDIUMOverview
CVE-2018-12891 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting debian debian_linux. It was published on July 2, 2018 and has a CVSS 3.0 base score of 6.5 (MEDIUM).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.0 base score of 6.5, rated MEDIUM. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.
Technical Description
An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.10.x. Certain PV MMU operations may take a long time to process. For that reason Xen explicitly checks for the need to preempt the current vCPU at certain points. A few rarely taken code paths did bypass such checks. By suitably enforcing the conditions through its own page table contents, a malicious guest may cause such bypasses to be used for an unbounded number of iterations. A malicious or buggy PV guest may cause a Denial of Service (DoS) affecting the entire host. Specifically, it may prevent use of a physical CPU for an indeterminate period of time. All Xen versions from 3.4 onwards are vulnerable. Xen versions 3.3 and earlier are vulnerable to an even wider class of attacks, due to them lacking preemption checks altogether in the affected code paths. Only x86 systems are affected. ARM systems are not affected. Only multi-vCPU x86 PV guests can leverage the vulnerability. x86 HVM or PVH guests as well as x86 single-vCPU PV ones cannot le
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from debian. Update debian_linux to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| xen | xen | 0 | Affected |
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2018-12891?
CVE-2018-12891 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting debian debian_linux. It was published on July 2, 2018 and has a CVSS 3.0 base score of 6.5 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2018-12891?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.0 base score of 6.5, rated MEDIUM. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2018-12891?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from debian. Update debian_linux to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2018-12891?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2018-12891 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
AI agents map your attack surface to find vulnerabilities like this one.
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