CVE-2017-8905
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest...
8.8 HighFix available
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- Low
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
0.42%Down 1.8 points since Apr 14, 2021
What each source reports
NVD Score used
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
- Record
CVE-2017-8905- CVSS 3.0
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 6.8 Medium
AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C - Weakness
- CWE-682
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
- Record
CVE-2017-8905- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2017-17845 No score
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
- Record
EUVD-2017-17845- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-fff9-ccrg-mjcr
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest...
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
- Record
GHSA-fff9-ccrg-mjcr- CVSS 3.0
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-682
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2017-8905
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
- Record
ALPINE-CVE-2017-8905- CVSS 3.0
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
- Record
CVE-2017-8905- CVSS 3.0
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
Show 6 moreShow less
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2017-8905
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2017-8905- CVSS 3.0
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2017-8905
Xen through 4.6.x on 64-bit platforms mishandles a failsafe callback, which might allow PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS, aka XSA-215.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2017-8905- CVSS 3.0
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2017:1715-1 No score
Security update for xen
This update for xen fixes the following security issues:
- blkif responses leaked backend stack data, which allowed unprivileged guest to obtain sensitive information from the host or other guests (XSA-216, bsc#1042863)
- Page transfer might have allowed PV guest to elevate privilege (XSA-217, bsc#1042882)
- Races in the grant table unmap code allowed for informations leaks and potentially privilege escalation (XSA-218, bsc#1042893)
- Insufficient reference counts during shadow emulation allowed a malicious pair of guest to elevate their privileges to the privileges that XEN runs under (XSA-219, bsc#1042915)
- Stale P2M mappings due to insufficient error checking allowed malicious guest to leak information or elevate privileges (XSA-222, bsc#1042931)
- Grant table operations mishandled reference counts allowing malicious guests to escape (XSA-224, bsc#1042938)
- CVE-2017-9330: USB OHCI Emulation in qemu allowed local guest OS users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) by leveraging an incorrect return value (bsc#1042160)
- CVE-2017-8309: Memory leak in the audio/audio.c allowed remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by repeatedly starting and stopping audio capture (bsc#1037243)
- CVE-2017-8905: Xen a failsafe callback, which might have allowed PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS (XSA-215, bsc#1034845).
- Record
SUSE-SU-2017:1715-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2017:1770-1 No score
Security update for xen
This update for xen fixes several issues.
These security issues were fixed:
- blkif responses leaked backend stack data, which allowed unprivileged guest to obtain sensitive information from the host or other guests (XSA-216, bsc#1042863)
- Page transfer might have allowed PV guest to elevate privilege (XSA-217, bsc#1042882)
- Races in the grant table unmap code allowed for informations leaks and potentially privilege escalation (XSA-218, bsc#1042893)
- Insufficient reference counts during shadow emulation allowed a malicious pair of guest to elevate their privileges to the privileges that XEN runs under (XSA-219, bsc#1042915)
- Stale P2M mappings due to insufficient error checking allowed malicious guest to leak information or elevate privileges (XSA-222, bsc#1042931)
- Grant table operations mishandled reference counts allowing malicious guests to escape (XSA-224, bsc#1042938)
- CVE-2017-9330: USB OHCI Emulation in qemu allowed local guest OS users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) by leveraging an incorrect return value (bsc#1042160)
- CVE-2017-8309: Memory leak in the audio/audio.c allowed remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by repeatedly starting and stopping audio capture (bsc#1037243)
- CVE-2017-8905: Xen a failsafe callback, which might have allowed PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS (XSA-215, bsc#1034845).
- CVE-2017-9503: The MegaRAID SAS 8708EM2 Host Bus Adapter emulation support was vulnerable to a null pointer dereference issue which allowed a privileged user inside guest to crash the Qemu process on the host resulting in DoS (bsc#1043297)
- CVE-2017-9374: Missing free of 's->ipacket', causes a host memory leak, allowing for DoS (bsc#1043074)
- CVE-2017-8112: hw/scsi/vmw_pvscsi.c allowed local guest OS privileged users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and CPU consumption) via the message ring page count (bsc#1036470)
- Missing NULL pointer check in event channel poll allows guests to DoS the host (XSA-221, bsc#1042924)
These non-security issues were fixed:
- bsc#1032148: Ensure that time doesn't goes backwards during live migration of HVM domU
- bsc#1031460: Fixed DomU Live Migration
- bsc#1014136: Fixed kdump SLES12-SP2
- bsc#1026236: Equalized paravirtualized vs. fully virtualized migration speed
- Record
SUSE-SU-2017:1770-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2017:1795-1 No score
Security update for xen
This update for xen fixes several issues.
These security issues were fixed:
- CVE-2017-9503: The MegaRAID SAS 8708EM2 Host Bus Adapter emulation support was vulnerable to a null pointer dereference issue which allowed a privileged user inside guest to crash the Qemu process on the host resulting in DoS (bsc#1043297)
- CVE-2017-9374: Missing free of 's->ipacket', causes a host memory leak, allowing for DoS (bsc#1043074)
- CVE-2017-10911: blkif responses leaked backend stack data, which allowed unprivileged guest to obtain sensitive information from the host or other guests (XSA-216, bsc#1042863)
- CVE-2017-10912: Page transfer might have allowed PV guest to elevate privilege (XSA-217, bsc#1042882)
- CVE-2017-10913, CVE-2017-10914: Races in the grant table unmap code allowed for informations leaks and potentially privilege escalation (XSA-218, bsc#1042893)
- CVE-2017-10915: Insufficient reference counts during shadow emulation allowed a malicious pair of guest to elevate their privileges to the privileges that XEN runs under (XSA-219, bsc#1042915)
- CVE-2017-10917: Missing NULL pointer check in event channel poll allows guests to DoS the host (XSA-221, bsc#1042924)
- CVE-2017-10918: Stale P2M mappings due to insufficient error checking allowed malicious guest to leak information or elevate privileges (XSA-222, bsc#1042931)
- CVE-2017-10920, CVE-2017-10921, CVE-2017-10922: Grant table operations mishandled reference counts allowing malicious guests to escape (XSA-224, bsc#1042938)
- CVE-2017-9330: USB OHCI Emulation in qemu allowed local guest OS users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) by leveraging an incorrect return value (bsc#1042160)
- CVE-2017-8309: Memory leak in the audio/audio.c allowed remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by repeatedly starting and stopping audio capture (bsc#1037243)
- CVE-2017-8112: hw/scsi/vmw_pvscsi.c allowed local guest OS privileged users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and CPU consumption) via the message ring page count (bsc#1036470)
- CVE-2017-8905: Xen a failsafe callback, which might have allowed PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS (XSA-215, bsc#1034845).
These non-security issues were fixed:
- bsc#1031460: Fixed DomU Live Migration
- bsc#1014136: Fixed kdump SLES12-SP2
- bsc#1026236: Equalized paravirtualized vs. fully virtualized migration speed
- bsc#1032148: Ensure that time doesn't goes backwards during live migration of HVM domU
- bsc#1027519: Included various upstream patches
- Record
SUSE-SU-2017:1795-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2017:1812-1 No score
Security update for xen
This update for xen fixes several issues.
These security issues were fixed:
- CVE-2017-10911: blkif responses leaked backend stack data, which allowed unprivileged guest to obtain sensitive information from the host or other guests (XSA-216, bsc#1042863)
- CVE-2017-10912: Page transfer might have allowed PV guest to elevate privilege (XSA-217, bsc#1042882)
- CVE-2017-10913, CVE-2017-10914: Races in the grant table unmap code allowed for informations leaks and potentially privilege escalation (XSA-218, bsc#1042893)
- CVE-2017-10915: Insufficient reference counts during shadow emulation allowed a malicious pair of guest to elevate their privileges to the privileges that XEN runs under (XSA-219, bsc#1042915)
- CVE-2017-10917: Missing NULL pointer check in event channel poll allows guests to DoS the host (XSA-221, bsc#1042924)
- CVE-2017-10918: Stale P2M mappings due to insufficient error checking allowed malicious guest to leak information or elevate privileges (XSA-222, bsc#1042931)
- CVE-2017-10922, CVE-2017-10921, CVE-2017-10920: Grant table operations mishandled reference counts allowing malicious guests to escape (XSA-224, bsc#1042938)
- CVE-2017-10916: PKRU and BND* leakage between vCPU-s might have leaked information to other guests (XSA-220, bsc#1042923)
- CVE-2017-9330: USB OHCI Emulation in qemu allowed local guest OS users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) by leveraging an incorrect return value (bsc#1042160)
- CVE-2017-8309: Memory leak in the audio/audio.c allowed remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by repeatedly starting and stopping audio capture (bsc#1037243)
- CVE-2017-8112: hw/scsi/vmw_pvscsi.c allowed local guest OS privileged users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and CPU consumption) via the message ring page count (bsc#1036470)
- CVE-2017-8905: Xen a failsafe callback, which might have allowed PV guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS (XSA-215, bsc#1034845).
- CVE-2017-9503: The MegaRAID SAS 8708EM2 Host Bus Adapter emulation support was vulnerable to a null pointer dereference issue which allowed a privileged user inside guest to crash the Qemu process on the host resulting in DoS (bsc#1043297)
- CVE-2017-9374: Missing free of 's->ipacket', causes a host memory leak, allowing for DoS (bsc#1043074)
These non-security issues were fixed:
- bsc#1031460: Fixed DomU Live Migration
- bsc#1014136: Fixed kdump SLES12-SP2
- bsc#1026236: Equalized paravirtualized vs. fully virtualized migration speed
- Record
SUSE-SU-2017:1812-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
xenAlpine:v3.3 |
before 4.6.3-r7 | 4.6.3-r7 |
xenAlpine:v3.4 |
before 4.6.3-r9 | 4.6.3-r9 |
xenAlpine:v3.5 |
before 4.7.2-r1 | 4.7.2-r1 |
xenDebian:12 |
before 4.8.0~rc3-1 | 4.8.0~rc3-1 |
xenDebian:13 |
before 4.8.0~rc3-1 | 4.8.0~rc3-1 |
xenDebian:14 |
before 4.8.0~rc3-1 | 4.8.0~rc3-1 |
xenDebian:7 |
before 4.1.6.lts1-8, plus listed versions 4.1.4-34.1.4-3+deb7u14.1.4-3+deb7u24.1.4-3+deb7u34.1.4-3+deb7u4 Show 14 moreShow less4.1.4-3+deb7u54.1.4-3+deb7u64.1.4-3+deb7u74.1.4-3+deb7u84.1.4-3+deb7u94.1.4-44.1.6.1-1+deb7u14.1.6.lts1-14.1.6.lts1-24.1.6.lts1-34.1.6.lts1-44.1.6.lts1-54.1.6.lts1-64.1.6.lts1-7 |
4.1.6.lts1-8 |
xenDebian:8 |
before 4.4.1-9+deb8u9, plus listed versions 4.4.1-94.4.1-9+deb8u14.4.1-9+deb8u24.4.1-9+deb8u34.4.1-9+deb8u4 Show 4 moreShow less4.4.1-9+deb8u54.4.1-9+deb8u64.4.1-9+deb8u74.4.1-9+deb8u8 |
4.4.1-9+deb8u9 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 11 SP3 |
before 4.2.5_21-44.1 | 4.2.5_21-44.1 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3-LTSS |
before 4.2.5_21-44.1 | 4.2.5_21-44.1 |
Show 10 moreShow less
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 11 SP4 |
before 4.4.4_20-60.3 | 4.4.4_20-60.3 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 |
before 4.4.4_20-60.3 | 4.4.4_20-60.3 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 11 SP4 |
before 4.4.4_20-60.3 | 4.4.4_20-60.3 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 |
before 4.4.4_21-22.42.1 | 4.4.4_21-22.42.1 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12-LTSS |
before 4.4.4_21-22.42.1 | 4.4.4_21-22.42.1 |
xenSUSE:OpenStack Cloud 6 |
before 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 | 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1 |
before 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 | 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1-LTSS |
before 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 | 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 |
xenUbuntu:14.04:LTS |
before 4.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.11, plus listed versions 4.3.0-1ubuntu14.3.0-1ubuntu24.3.0-1ubuntu34.3.0-1ubuntu44.3.0-1ubuntu5 Show 20 moreShow less4.4.0-0ubuntu34.4.0-0ubuntu44.4.0-0ubuntu54.4.0-0ubuntu5.14.4.0-0ubuntu5.24.4.1-0ubuntu0.14.04.14.4.1-0ubuntu0.14.04.24.4.1-0ubuntu0.14.04.34.4.1-0ubuntu0.14.04.44.4.1-0ubuntu0.14.04.54.4.1-0ubuntu0.14.04.64.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.14.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.24.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.34.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.44.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.54.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.64.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.74.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.94.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.10 |
4.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.11 |
xenUbuntu:16.04:LTS |
before 4.6.5-0ubuntu1.1, plus listed versions 4.5.1-0ubuntu14.5.1-0ubuntu24.6.0-1ubuntu14.6.0-1ubuntu24.6.0-1ubuntu4 Show 4 moreShow less4.6.0-1ubuntu4.14.6.0-1ubuntu4.24.6.0-1ubuntu4.34.6.5-0ubuntu1 |
4.6.5-0ubuntu1.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2017-8905 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.8) in Xen, published May 9, 2017. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.42%, the 36th percentile. Fixed in xen 4.6.3-r7.
References
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201705-11
securitytracker.com/id/1038388
xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-215.html
securityfocus.com/bid/98436
blog.xenproject.org/2017/05/02/updates-on-xsa-213-xsa-214-and-xsa-215
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-8905
Show 45 moreShow less
github.com/advisories/GHSA-fff9-ccrg-mjcr
security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2017-8905
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-8905
suse.com/support/update/announcement/2017/suse-su-20171715-1
bugzilla.suse.com/1034845
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-8905
cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-8905