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Vulnerability record · CVE-2023-46842 · published 16 May 2024

CVE-2023-46842: Xen type confusion vulnerability

Xen · Xen

Unlike 32-bit PV guests, HVM guests may switch freely between 64-bit and other modes. This in particular means that they may set registers used to pass 32-bit-mode hypercall arguments to values outside of the range 32-bit code would be able to set them to. When processing of hypercalls takes a considerable amount of time, the hypervisor may choose to invoke a hypercall continuation. Doing so involves putting (perhaps updated) hypercall arguments in respective registers. For guests not running in 64-bit mode this further involves a certain amount of translation of the values. Unfortunately internal sanity checking of these translated values assumes high halves of registers to always be clear when invoking a hypercall. When this is found not to be the case, it triggers a consistency check in the hypervisor and causes a crash.

6.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium EPSS 8.5% · top 5.1% CWE-843 · Type confusion
6.5CVSS 3.1 base score
8.5%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
2Affected product versions listed by NVD
5References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

Unlike 32-bit PV guests, HVM guests may switch freely between 64-bit and other modes. This in particular means that they may set registers used to pass 32-bit-mode hypercall arguments to values outside of the range 32-bit code would be able to set them to. When processing of hypercalls takes a considerable amount of time, the hypervisor may choose to invoke a hypercall continuation. Doing so involves putting (perhaps updated) hypercall arguments in respective registers. For guests not running in 64-bit mode this further involves a certain amount of translation of the values. Unfortunately internal sanity checking of these translated values assumes high halves of registers to always be clear when invoking a hypercall. When this is found not to be the case, it triggers a consistency check in the hypervisor and causes a crash.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

2 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-454.html PatchVendor Advisory
http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-454.html PatchVendor Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/D5OK6MH75S7YWD34EWW7QIZTS Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/RYAZ7P6YFJ2E3FHKAGIKHWS46 Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-454.html PatchVendor Advisory

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2023-46842), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.