Description
An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. In the Ocaml xenstored implementation, the internal representation of the tree has special cases for the root node, because this node has no parent. Unfortunately, permissions were not checked for certain operations on the root node. Unprivileged guests can get and modify permissions, list, and delete the root node. (Deleting the whole xenstore tree is a host-wide denial of service.) Achieving xenstore write access is also possible. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | xen | 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | xen | 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | xen | 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1 | — |
| Debian 10 | xen | 4.11.4+57-g41a822c392-2 | DSA-4812-1 |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | xen | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | xen | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | xen | No fix yet | — |
Alpine
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.24 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.23 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.22 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.21 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.20 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
Show 9 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.19 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.18 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.17 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.16 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.15 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.14 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.13 | xen | 4.14.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.12 | xen | 4.13.2-r3 | — |
| Alpine v3.11 | xen | 4.13.2-r3 | — |
Advisories 1
- DSA-4812-1 xen - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- https://xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-353.html
- DSA-4812 vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2020-64859a826b vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2020-df772b417b vendor-advisory
- GLSA-202107-30 vendor-advisory