7.8

CVE-2023-34322: top-level shadow reference dropped too early for 64-bit PV guests

Modified
AliasesALPINE-CVE-2023-34322UBUNTU-CVE-2023-34322DEBIAN-CVE-2023-34322
Published 05-01-2024Last modified 04-11-2025

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-34322 is a high (CVSS 7.8) Improper Check for Dropped Privileges vulnerability in xen. EPSS estimates a 0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 12.7% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Routine

Not severe (CVSS 7.8, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
7.8/10
010
High · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
0.22%
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 9 · Related 9
OPENSUSE-SU-2024:13257-1SUSE-SU-2023:3831-1SUSE-SU-2023:3832-1SUSE-SU-2023:3894-1SUSE-SU-2023:3895-1SUSE-SU-2023:3902-1

Timeline

  1. 05-01-2024
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 04-11-2025
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

For migration as well as to work around kernels unaware of L1TF (see XSA-273), PV guests may be run in shadow paging mode. Since Xen itself needs to be mapped when PV guests run, Xen and shadowed PV guests run directly the respective shadow page tables. For 64-bit PV guests this means running on the shadow of the guest root page table. In the course of dealing with shortage of memory in the shadow pool associated with a domain, shadows of page tables may be torn down. This tearing down may include the shadow root page table that the CPU in question is presently running on. While a precaution exists to supposedly prevent the tearing down of the underlying live page table, the time window covered by that precaution isn't large enough.

CVSS metrics

5 scores · 5 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.22%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

13%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

No change 0.00 pp

From 0.22% 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

Affected systems

Version check

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

Alpine1 product
  • xen≥ 3.2.0, < 4.15.5-r1 | ≥ 3.2.0, < 4.16.5-r1 | ≥ 3.2.0, < 4.17.2-r1
Debian1 product
  • xen< 4.17.2+76-ge1f9cb16e2-1~deb12u1 | < 4.17.2+55-g0b56bed864-1
Ubuntu1 product
  • xenAll versions (No fix recorded)
Xen1 product
  • xen≥ 3.2.0, < 4.15.0

4 vendors · 4 products

References

7 links