6.5

CVE-2018-12891: debian debian_linux

Modified
AliasesALPINE-CVE-2018-12891UBUNTU-CVE-2018-12891DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12891
Published 02-07-2018Last modified 05-08-2024

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2018-12891 is a medium (CVSS 6.5) vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 37.7% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Routine

Not severe (CVSS 6.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
6.5/10
010
Medium · v3.0 (NVD)
EPSS score
0.43%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 11 · Related 9
DLA-1577-1DSA-4236-1OPENSUSE-SU-2024:11520-1SUSE-SU-2018:1981-1SUSE-SU-2018:2037-1SUSE-SU-2018:2056-1

Timeline

  1. 02-07-2018
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 05-08-2024
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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 leverage the vulnerability.

CVSS metrics

5 scores · 4 sources · 2 versions

EPSS trend

Probability

0.43%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

38%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

No change 0.00 pp

From 0.43% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

No weakness data has been published for this record.

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Debian2 products
  • xen< 4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
  • debian_linuxEOL8.0 | 9.0
Alpine1 product
  • xen< 4.11.0-r0 | < 4.7.6-r0 | < 4.8.4-r0 | < 4.9.3-r0 | < 4.10.1-r3
Ubuntu1 product
  • xenAll versions (No fix recorded)
Xen1 product

4 vendors · 5 products

References

13 links
Show all 13 references