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CVE-2018-12892

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu...

9.9 CriticalFix available

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
Low
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

2.47%Up 1.0 points since Apr 14, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 9.9

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Record
CVE-2018-12892
CVSS 3.0
9.9 CriticalCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0
6.5 MediumAV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
Weakness
CWE-200
Updated
2026-11-02
CVE List No score

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Record
CVE-2018-12892
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2018-4845 No score

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Record
EUVD-2018-4845
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-pv22-mjm8-4f83 9.9

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu...

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Record
GHSA-pv22-mjm8-4f83
CVSS 3.0
9.9 CriticalCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness
CWE-200
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2018-12892 9.9

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Record
ALPINE-CVE-2018-12892
CVSS 3.0
9.9 CriticalCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 9.9

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Record
CVE-2018-12892
CVSS 3.0
9.9 CriticalCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
Show 7 moreShow less
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2018-12892 9.9

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2018-12892
CVSS 3.0
9.9 CriticalCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2018-12892 9.9

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI disk, due to what was probably an erroneous merge conflict resolution. Malicious guest administrators or (in some situations) users may be able to write to supposedly read-only disk images. Only emulated SCSI disks (specified as "sd" in the libxl disk configuration, or an equivalent) are affected. IDE disks ("hd") are not affected (because attempts to make them readonly are rejected). Additionally, CDROM devices (that is, devices specified to be presented to the guest as CDROMs, regardless of the nature of the backing storage on the host) are not affected; they are always read only. Only systems using qemu-xen (rather than qemu-xen-traditional) as the device model version are vulnerable. Only systems using libxl or libxl-based toolstacks are vulnerable. (This includes xl, and libvirt with the libxl driver.) The vulnerability is present in Xen versions 4.7 and later. (In earlier versions, provided that the patch for XSA-142 has been applied, attempts to create read only disks are rejected.) If the host and guest together usually support PVHVM, the issue is exploitable only if the malicious guest administrator has control of the guest kernel or guest kernel command line.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2018-12892
CVSS 3.0
9.9 CriticalCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2024:11520-1 No score

xen-4.15.1_01-1.2 on GA media

These are all security issues fixed in the xen-4.15.1_01-1.2 package on the GA media of openSUSE Tumbleweed.

Record
openSUSE-SU-2024:11520-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2018:1981-1 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

Security issues fixed:

  • CVE-2018-3665: Fix Lazy FP Save/Restore issue (XSA-267) (bsc#1095242).
  • CVE-2018-12891: Fix possible Denial of Service (DoS) via certain PV MMU operations that affect the entire host (XSA-264) (bsc#1097521).
  • CVE-2018-12892: Fix libxl to honour the readonly flag on HVM emulated SCSI disks (XSA-266) (bsc#1097523).
  • CVE-2018-12893: Fix crash/Denial of Service (DoS) via safety check (XSA-265) (bsc#1097522).

Bug fixes:

  • bsc#1027519: Add upstream patches from January.
  • bsc#1098403: Fix regression introduced by changes for bsc#1079730. A PV domU without qcow2 and/or vfb has no qemu attached. Ignore QMP errors for PV domUs to handle PV domUs with and without an attached qemu-xen.
  • bsc#1087289: Fix xen scheduler crash.
Record
SUSE-SU-2018:1981-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2018:2059-1 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

Security issues fixed:

  • CVE-2018-3665: Fix Lazy FP Save/Restore issue (XSA-267) (bsc#1095242).
  • CVE-2018-12891: Fix possible Denial of Service (DoS) via certain PV MMU operations that affect the entire host (XSA-264) (bsc#1097521).
  • CVE-2018-12892: Fix libxl to honour the readonly flag on HVM emulated SCSI disks (XSA-266) (bsc#1097523).
  • CVE-2018-12893: Fix crash/Denial of Service (DoS) via safety check (XSA-265) (bsc#1097522).
  • CVE-2018-11806: Fix heap buffer overflow while reassembling fragmented datagrams (bsc#1096224).

Bug fixes:

  • bsc#1027519: Add upstream patches from January.
  • bsc#1087289: Fix xen scheduler crash.
Record
SUSE-SU-2018:2059-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2018:2081-1 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

Security issues fixed:

  • CVE-2018-12891: Fix preemption checks bypass in x86 PV MM handling (XSA-264) (bsc#1097521).
  • CVE-2018-12892: Fix libxl failure to honour readonly flag on HVM emulated SCSI disks (XSA-266) (bsc#1097523).
  • CVE-2018-12893: Fix #DB exception safety check that could be triggered by a guest (XSA-265) (bsc#1097522).
  • CVE-2018-11806: Fix heap buffer overflow while reassembling fragmented datagrams (bsc#1096224).
  • CVE-2018-3665: Fix lazy FP Save/Restore (XSA-267) (bsc#1095242).

Bug fixes:

  • bsc#1027519: Update to Xen 4.7.6 bug fix only release.
  • bsc#1087289: Xen BUG at sched_credit.c:1663.
  • bsc#1094725: virsh blockresize does not work with Xen qdisks.
Record
SUSE-SU-2018:2081-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2018:2081-2 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

Security issues fixed:

  • CVE-2018-12891: Fix preemption checks bypass in x86 PV MM handling (XSA-264) (bsc#1097521).
  • CVE-2018-12892: Fix libxl failure to honour readonly flag on HVM emulated SCSI disks (XSA-266) (bsc#1097523).
  • CVE-2018-12893: Fix #DB exception safety check that could be triggered by a guest (XSA-265) (bsc#1097522).
  • CVE-2018-11806: Fix heap buffer overflow while reassembling fragmented datagrams (bsc#1096224).
  • CVE-2018-3665: Fix lazy FP Save/Restore (XSA-267) (bsc#1095242).

Bug fixes:

  • bsc#1027519: Update to Xen 4.7.6 bug fix only release.
  • bsc#1087289: Xen BUG at sched_credit.c:1663.
  • bsc#1094725: virsh blockresize does not work with Xen qdisks.
Record
SUSE-SU-2018:2081-2
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
xen
Alpine:v3.10
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.11
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.12
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.13
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.14
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.15
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.16
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.17
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.18
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.19
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
Show 27 moreShow less
Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
xen
Alpine:v3.20
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.21
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.22
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.23
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.24
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.5
4.7.0 up to 4.7.6-r0
4.7.6-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.6
4.7.0 up to 4.8.4-r0
4.8.4-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.7
4.7.0 up to 4.9.3-r0
4.9.3-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.8
4.7.0 up to 4.10.1-r3
4.10.1-r3
xen
Alpine:v3.9
4.7.0 up to 4.11.0-r0
4.11.0-r0
xen
Debian:12
before 4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
xen
Debian:13
before 4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
xen
Debian:14
before 4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
xen
Debian:9
From an advisory covering 3 CVEs
before 4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9, plus listed versions
4.8.1-1+deb9u14.8.1-1+deb9u24.8.1-1+deb9u34.8.2+xsa245-0+deb9u14.8.3+comet2+shim4.10.0+comet3-1+deb9u4
Show 5 moreShow less
4.8.3+comet2+shim4.10.0+comet3-1+deb9u4.14.8.3+comet2+shim4.10.0+comet3-1+deb9u54.8.3+xsa262+shim4.10.0+comet3-1+deb9u64.8.3+xsa262+shim4.10.0+comet3-1+deb9u74.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u8
4.8.3+xsa267+shim4.10.1+xsa267-1+deb9u9
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15
From an advisory covering 4 CVEs
before 4.10.1_06-3.3.1
4.10.1_06-3.3.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15
From an advisory covering 4 CVEs
before 4.10.1_06-3.3.1
4.10.1_06-3.3.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP3
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.9.2_08-3.35.2
4.9.2_08-3.35.2
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP3
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.9.2_08-3.35.2
4.9.2_08-3.35.2
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.9.2_08-3.35.2
4.9.2_08-3.35.2
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP3
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.9.2_08-3.35.2
4.9.2_08-3.35.2
xen
SUSE:OpenStack Cloud 7
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.7.6_02-43.36.1
4.7.6_02-43.36.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP2
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.7.6_02-43.36.1
4.7.6_02-43.36.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2-LTSS
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.7.6_02-43.36.1
4.7.6_02-43.36.1
xen
SUSE:Enterprise Storage 4
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.7.6_02-43.36.1
4.7.6_02-43.36.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2-BCL
From an advisory covering 5 CVEs
before 4.7.6_02-43.36.1
4.7.6_02-43.36.1
xen
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
4.9.0-0ubuntu34.9.0-0ubuntu44.9.2-0ubuntu1
None known
xen
openSUSE:Tumbleweed
From an advisory covering 93 CVEs
before 4.15.1_01-1.2
4.15.1_01-1.2

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
affected, facts
aliasesEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2018-12892 is a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.9) in Xen, published June 27, 2018. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 2.47%, the 84th percentile. Fixed in xen 4.11.0-r0.

References

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