In the context switch logic Xen attempts to skip an IBPB in the case of
a vCPU returning to a CPU on which it was the previous vCPU to run.
While safe for Xen's isolation between vCPUs, this prevents the guest
kernel correctly isolating between tasks. Consider:
1) vCPU runs on CPU A, running task 1.
2) vCPU moves to CPU B, idle gets scheduled on A. Xen skips IBPB.
3) On CPU B, guest kernel switches from task 1 to 2, issuing IBPB.
4) vCPU moves back to CPU A. Xen skips IBPB again.
Now, task 2 is running on CPU A with task 1's training still in the BTB.
When passing through PCI devices, the detach logic in libxl won't remove
access permissions to any 64bit memory BARs the device might have. As a
result a domain can still have access any 64bit memory BAR when such
device is no longer assigned to the domain.
For PV domains the permission leak allows the domain itself to map the memory
in the page-tables. For HVM it would require a compromised device model or
stubdomain to map the leaked memory into the HVM domain p2m.
[This CNA information record relates to multiple CVEs; the
text explains which aspects/vulnerabilities correspond to which CVE.]
There are multiple issues related to the handling and accessing of guest
memory pages in the viridian code:
1. A NULL pointer dereference in the updating of the reference TSC area.
This is CVE-2025-27466.
2. A NULL pointer dereference by assuming the SIM page is mapped when
a synthetic timer message has to be delivered. This is
CVE-2025-58142.
3. A race in the mapping of the reference TSC page, where a guest can
get Xen to free a page while still present in the guest physical to
machine (p2m) page tables. This is CVE-2025-58143.
[This CNA information record relates to multiple CVEs; the
text explains which aspects/vulnerabilities correspond to which CVE.]
There are multiple issues related to the handling and accessing of guest
memory pages in the viridian code:
1. A NULL pointer dereference in the updating of the reference TSC area.
This is CVE-2025-27466.
2. A NULL pointer dereference by assuming the SIM page is mapped when
a synthetic timer message has to be delivered. This is
CVE-2025-58142.
3. A race in the mapping of the reference TSC page, where a guest can
get Xen to free a page while still present in the guest physical to
machine (p2m) page tables. This is CVE-2025-58143.
[This CNA information record relates to multiple CVEs; the
text explains which aspects/vulnerabilities correspond to which CVE.]
There are multiple issues related to the handling and accessing of guest
memory pages in the viridian code:
1. A NULL pointer dereference in the updating of the reference TSC area.
This is CVE-2025-27466.
2. A NULL pointer dereference by assuming the SIM page is mapped when
a synthetic timer message has to be delivered. This is
CVE-2025-58142.
3. A race in the mapping of the reference TSC page, where a guest can
get Xen to free a page while still present in the guest physical to
machine (p2m) page tables. This is CVE-2025-58143.
When setting up interrupt remapping for legacy PCI(-X) devices,
including PCI(-X) bridges, a lookup of the upstream bridge is required.
This lookup, itself involving acquiring of a lock, is done in a context
where acquiring that lock is unsafe. This can lead to a deadlock.
Certain instructions need intercepting and emulating by Xen. In some
cases Xen emulates the instruction by replaying it, using an executable
stub. Some instructions may raise an exception, which is supposed to be
handled gracefully. Certain replayed instructions have additional logic
to set up and recover the changes to the arithmetic flags.
For replayed instructions where the flags recovery logic is used, the
metadata for exception handling was incorrect, preventing Xen from
handling the the exception gracefully, treating it as fatal instead.
The hypervisor contains code to accelerate VGA memory accesses for HVM
guests, when the (virtual) VGA is in "standard" mode. Locking involved
there has an unusual discipline, leaving a lock acquired past the
return from the function that acquired it. This behavior results in a
problem when emulating an instruction with two memory accesses, both of
which touch VGA memory (plus some further constraints which aren't
relevant here). When emulating the 2nd access, the lock that is already
being held would be attempted to be re-acquired, resulting in a
deadlock.
This deadlock was already found when the code was first introduced, but
was analysed incorrectly and the fix was incomplete. Analysis in light
of the new finding cannot find a way to make the existing locking
discipline work.
In staging, this logic has all been removed because it was discovered
to be accidentally disabled since Xen 4.7. Therefore, we are fixing the
locking problem by backporting the removal of most of the feature. Note
that even with the feature disabled, the lock would still be acquired
for any accesses to the VGA MMIO region.
PVH guests have their ACPI tables constructed by the toolstack. The
construction involves building the tables in local memory, which are
then copied into guest memory. While actually used parts of the local
memory are filled in correctly, excess space that is being allocated is
left with its prior contents.
Certain PCI devices in a system might be assigned Reserved Memory
Regions (specified via Reserved Memory Region Reporting, "RMRR") for
Intel VT-d or Unity Mapping ranges for AMD-Vi. These are typically used
for platform tasks such as legacy USB emulation.
Since the precise purpose of these regions is unknown, once a device
associated with such a region is active, the mappings of these regions
need to remain continuouly accessible by the device. In the logic
establishing these mappings, error handling was flawed, resulting in
such mappings to potentially remain in place when they should have been
removed again. Respective guests would then gain access to memory
regions which they aren't supposed to have access to.