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CVE-2020-15563

6.5 · MEDIUM

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.13.x, allowing x86 HVM guest OS users to cause a hypervisor crash.

Published Jul 7, 2020CWE-119EPSS 0.41%

Overview

CVE-2020-15563 is a medium-severity vulnerability. It was published on July 7, 2020 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5 (MEDIUM).

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 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 4.13.x, allowing x86 HVM guest OS users to cause a hypervisor crash. An inverted conditional in x86 HVM guests' dirty video RAM tracking code allows such guests to make Xen de-reference a pointer guaranteed to point at unmapped space. A malicious or buggy HVM guest may cause the hypervisor to crash, resulting in Denial of Service (DoS) affecting the entire host. Xen versions from 4.8 onwards are affected. Xen versions 4.7 and earlier are not affected. Only x86 systems are affected. Arm systems are not affected. Only x86 HVM guests using shadow paging can leverage the vulnerability. In addition, there needs to be an entity actively monitoring a guest's video frame buffer (typically for display purposes) in order for such a guest to be able to leverage the vulnerability. x86 PV guests, as well as x86 HVM guests using hardware assisted paging (HAP), cannot leverage the vulnerability.

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. 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.

References

Reflists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00024.htmlReflists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00031.htmlRefwww.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/07/07/3Refxenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-319.htmlReflists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MXESCOVI7AVRNC7HEAMFM7PMEO6D3AUH/Reflists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/VB3QJJZV23Z2IDYEMIHELWYSQBUEW6JP/Refsecurity.gentoo.org/glsa/202007-02Refwww.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4723Reflists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00024.htmlReflists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00031.html

How CyberStrike helps

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-15563?

CVE-2020-15563 is a medium-severity vulnerability. It was published on July 7, 2020 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2020-15563?

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 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-2020-15563?

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. 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-2020-15563?

CyberStrike is an open-source, AI-augmented pentesting engine. Rather than flag a version number, it tests whether an issue like CVE-2020-15563 is actually reachable in your own applications and APIs, then verifies each finding before reporting it. That tells you if the weakness is a real, exploitable risk in your environment or a false positive you can safely deprioritize.

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