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MEDIUM · 4.7

CVE-2023-46836

The fixes for XSA-422 (Branch Type Confusion) and XSA-434 (Speculative Return Stack Overflow) are not IRQ-safe. It was believed that the mitigations always operated in contexts with IRQs disabled. H...

Vulnerability Description

The fixes for XSA-422 (Branch Type Confusion) and XSA-434 (Speculative Return Stack Overflow) are not IRQ-safe. It was believed that the mitigations always operated in contexts with IRQs disabled. However, the original XSA-254 fix for Meltdown (XPTI) deliberately left interrupts enabled on two entry paths; one unconditionally, and one conditionally on whether XPTI was active. As BTC/SRSO and Meltdown affect different CPU vendors, the mitigations are not active together by default. Therefore, there is a race condition whereby a malicious PV guest can bypass BTC/SRSO protections and launch a BTC/SRSO attack against Xen.

CVSS Score

4.7

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE

Affected Products

VendorProductVersions
XenXenAll versions

References

FAQ

What is CVE-2023-46836?

CVE-2023-46836 is a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 4.7 (MEDIUM). The fixes for XSA-422 (Branch Type Confusion) and XSA-434 (Speculative Return Stack Overflow) are not IRQ-safe. It was believed that the mitigations always operated in contexts with IRQs disabled. H...

How severe is CVE-2023-46836?

CVE-2023-46836 has been rated MEDIUM with a CVSS base score of 4.7/10. Review the CVSS metrics above for detailed severity breakdown.

Is there a patch for CVE-2023-46836?

Check the references section above for vendor advisories and patch information. Affected products include: Xen Xen.