Every CVE Search/ Get API key

CVE-2020-25598

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource...

5.5 MediumFix available

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource error path. The RCU (Read, Copy, Update) mechanism is a synchronisation primitive. A buggy error path in the XENMEM_acquire_resource exits without releasing an RCU reference, which is conceptually similar to forgetting to unlock a spinlock. A buggy or malicious HVM stubdomain can cause an RCU reference to be leaked. This causes subsequent administration operations, (e.g., CPU offline) to livelock, resulting in a host Denial of Service. The buggy codepath has been present since Xen 4.12. Xen 4.14 and later are vulnerable to the DoS. The side effects are believed to be benign on Xen 4.12 and 4.13, but patches are provided nevertheless. The vulnerability can generally only be exploited by x86 HVM VMs, as these are generally the only type of VM that have a Qemu stubdomain. x86 PV and PVH domains, as well as ARM VMs, typically don't use a stubdomain. Only VMs using HVM stubdomains can exploit the vulnerability. VMs using PV stubdomains, or with emulators running in dom0, cannot exploit the vulnerability.

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

0.42%Down 1.4 points since Apr 14, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 5.5

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource error path. The RCU (Read, Copy, Update) mechanism is a synchronisation primitive. A buggy error path in the XENMEM_acquire_resource exits without releasing an RCU reference, which is conceptually similar to forgetting to unlock a spinlock. A buggy or malicious HVM stubdomain can cause an RCU reference to be leaked. This causes subsequent administration operations, (e.g., CPU offline) to livelock, resulting in a host Denial of Service. The buggy codepath has been present since Xen 4.12. Xen 4.14 and later are vulnerable to the DoS. The side effects are believed to be benign on Xen 4.12 and 4.13, but patches are provided nevertheless. The vulnerability can generally only be exploited by x86 HVM VMs, as these are generally the only type of VM that have a Qemu stubdomain. x86 PV and PVH domains, as well as ARM VMs, typically don't use a stubdomain. Only VMs using HVM stubdomains can exploit the vulnerability. VMs using PV stubdomains, or with emulators running in dom0, cannot exploit the vulnerability.

Record
CVE-2020-25598
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 2.0
2.1 LowAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
Weakness
CWE-670
Updated
2026-11-02
CVE List No score

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource error path. The RCU (Read, Copy, Update) mechanism is a synchronisation primitive. A buggy error path in the XENMEM_acquire_resource exits without releasing an RCU reference, which is conceptually similar to forgetting to unlock a spinlock. A buggy or malicious HVM stubdomain can cause an RCU reference to be leaked. This causes subsequent administration operations, (e.g., CPU offline) to livelock, resulting in a host Denial of Service. The buggy codepath has been present since Xen 4.12. Xen 4.14 and later are vulnerable to the DoS. The side effects are believed to be benign on Xen 4.12 and 4.13, but patches are provided nevertheless. The vulnerability can generally only be exploited by x86 HVM VMs, as these are generally the only type of VM that have a Qemu stubdomain. x86 PV and PVH domains, as well as ARM VMs, typically don't use a stubdomain. Only VMs using HVM stubdomains can exploit the vulnerability. VMs using PV stubdomains, or with emulators running in dom0, cannot exploit the vulnerability.

Record
CVE-2020-25598
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2020-18277 No score

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource error path. The RCU (Read, Copy, Update) mechanism is a synchronisation primitive. A buggy error path in the XENMEM_acquire_resource exits without releasing an RCU reference, which is conceptually similar to forgetting to unlock a spinlock. A buggy or malicious HVM stubdomain can cause an RCU reference to be leaked. This causes subsequent administration operations, (e.g., CPU offline) to livelock, resulting in a host Denial of Service. The buggy codepath has been present since Xen 4.12. Xen 4.14 and later are vulnerable to the DoS. The side effects are believed to be benign on Xen 4.12 and 4.13, but patches are provided nevertheless. The vulnerability can generally only be exploited by x86 HVM VMs, as these are generally the only type of VM that have a Qemu stubdomain. x86 PV and PVH domains, as well as ARM VMs, typically don't use a stubdomain. Only VMs using HVM stubdomains can exploit the vulnerability. VMs using PV stubdomains, or with emulators running in dom0, cannot exploit the vulnerability.

Record
EUVD-2020-18277
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-6vvr-9x9v-68j4 5.5

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource...

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource error path. The RCU (Read, Copy, Update) mechanism is a synchronisation primitive. A buggy error path in the XENMEM_acquire_resource exits without releasing an RCU reference, which is conceptually similar to forgetting to unlock a spinlock. A buggy or malicious HVM stubdomain can cause an RCU reference to be leaked. This causes subsequent administration operations, (e.g., CPU offline) to livelock, resulting in a host Denial of Service. The buggy codepath has been present since Xen 4.12. Xen 4.14 and later are vulnerable to the DoS. The side effects are believed to be benign on Xen 4.12 and 4.13, but patches are provided nevertheless. The vulnerability can generally only be exploited by x86 HVM VMs, as these are generally the only type of VM that have a Qemu stubdomain. x86 PV and PVH domains, as well as ARM VMs, typically don't use a stubdomain. Only VMs using HVM stubdomains can exploit the vulnerability. VMs using PV stubdomains, or with emulators running in dom0, cannot exploit the vulnerability.

Record
GHSA-6vvr-9x9v-68j4
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-670
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2020-25598 5.5

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource error path. The RCU (Read, Copy, Update) mechanism is a synchronisation primitive. A buggy error path in the XENMEM_acquire_resource exits without releasing an RCU reference, which is conceptually similar to forgetting to unlock a spinlock. A buggy or malicious HVM stubdomain can cause an RCU reference to be leaked. This causes subsequent administration operations, (e.g., CPU offline) to livelock, resulting in a host Denial of Service. The buggy codepath has been present since Xen 4.12. Xen 4.14 and later are vulnerable to the DoS. The side effects are believed to be benign on Xen 4.12 and 4.13, but patches are provided nevertheless. The vulnerability can generally only be exploited by x86 HVM VMs, as these are generally the only type of VM that have a Qemu stubdomain. x86 PV and PVH domains, as well as ARM VMs, typically don't use a stubdomain. Only VMs using HVM stubdomains can exploit the vulnerability. VMs using PV stubdomains, or with emulators running in dom0, cannot exploit the vulnerability.

Record
ALPINE-CVE-2020-25598
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 5.5

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.14.x. There is a missing unlock in the XENMEM_acquire_resource error path. The RCU (Read, Copy, Update) mechanism is a synchronisation primitive. A buggy error path in the XENMEM_acquire_resource exits without releasing an RCU reference, which is conceptually similar to forgetting to unlock a spinlock. A buggy or malicious HVM stubdomain can cause an RCU reference to be leaked. This causes subsequent administration operations, (e.g., CPU offline) to livelock, resulting in a host Denial of Service. The buggy codepath has been present since Xen 4.12. Xen 4.14 and later are vulnerable to the DoS. The side effects are believed to be benign on Xen 4.12 and 4.13, but patches are provided nevertheless. The vulnerability can generally only be exploited by x86 HVM VMs, as these are generally the only type of VM that have a Qemu stubdomain. x86 PV and PVH domains, as well as ARM VMs, typically don't use a stubdomain. Only VMs using HVM stubdomains can exploit the vulnerability. VMs using PV stubdomains, or with emulators running in dom0, cannot exploit the vulnerability.

Record
CVE-2020-25598
CVSS 3.1
5.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
Show 5 moreShow less
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2020:1608-1 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

  • CVE-2020-25602: Fixed an issue where there was a crash when handling guest access to MSR_MISC_ENABLE was thrown (bsc#1176339,XSA-333)
  • CVE-2020-25598: Added a missing unlock in XENMEM_acquire_resource error path (bsc#1176341,XSA-334)
  • CVE-2020-25604: Fixed a race condition when migrating timers between x86 HVM vCPU-s (bsc#1176343,XSA-336)
  • CVE-2020-25595: Fixed an issue where PCI passthrough code was reading back hardware registers (bsc#1176344,XSA-337)
  • CVE-2020-25597: Fixed an issue where a valid event channels may not turn invalid (bsc#1176346,XSA-338)
  • CVE-2020-25596: Fixed a potential denial of service in x86 pv guest kernel via SYSENTER (bsc#1176345,XSA-339)
  • CVE-2020-25603: Fixed an issue due to missing barriers when accessing/allocating an event channel (bsc#1176347,XSA-340)
  • CVE-2020-25600: Fixed out of bounds event channels available to 32-bit x86 domains (bsc#1176348,XSA-342)
  • CVE-2020-25599: Fixed race conditions with evtchn_reset() (bsc#1176349,XSA-343)
  • CVE-2020-25601: Fixed an issue due to lack of preemption in evtchn_reset() / evtchn_destroy() (bsc#1176350,XSA-344)
  • Various other fixes (bsc#1027519)

This update was imported from the SUSE:SLE-15-SP2:Update update project.

Record
openSUSE-SU-2020:1608-1
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-2020:2788-1 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

  • CVE-2020-25602: Fixed an issue where there was a crash when handling guest access to MSR_MISC_ENABLE was thrown (bsc#1176339,XSA-333)
  • CVE-2020-25598: Added a missing unlock in XENMEM_acquire_resource error path (bsc#1176341,XSA-334)
  • CVE-2020-25604: Fixed a race condition when migrating timers between x86 HVM vCPU-s (bsc#1176343,XSA-336)
  • CVE-2020-25595: Fixed an issue where PCI passthrough code was reading back hardware registers (bsc#1176344,XSA-337)
  • CVE-2020-25597: Fixed an issue where a valid event channels may not turn invalid (bsc#1176346,XSA-338)
  • CVE-2020-25596: Fixed a potential denial of service in x86 pv guest kernel via SYSENTER (bsc#1176345,XSA-339)
  • CVE-2020-25603: Fixed an issue due to missing barriers when accessing/allocating an event channel (bsc#1176347,XSA-340)
  • CVE-2020-25600: Fixed out of bounds event channels available to 32-bit x86 domains (bsc#1176348,XSA-342)
  • CVE-2020-25599: Fixed race conditions with evtchn_reset() (bsc#1176349,XSA-343)
  • CVE-2020-25601: Fixed an issue due to lack of preemption in evtchn_reset() / evtchn_destroy() (bsc#1176350,XSA-344)
  • CVE-2020-14364: Fixed an out-of-bounds read/write access while processing usb packets (bsc#1175534).
  • Various bug fixes (bsc#1027519)
Record
SUSE-SU-2020:2788-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2020:2790-1 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

  • CVE-2020-25602: Fixed an issue where there was a crash when handling guest access to MSR_MISC_ENABLE was thrown (bsc#1176339,XSA-333)

  • CVE-2020-25598: Added a missing unlock in XENMEM_acquire_resource error path (bsc#1176341,XSA-334)

  • CVE-2020-25604: Fixed a race condition when migrating timers between x86 HVM vCPU-s (bsc#1176343,XSA-336)

  • CVE-2020-25595: Fixed an issue where PCI passthrough code was reading back hardware registers (bsc#1176344,XSA-337)

  • CVE-2020-25597: Fixed an issue where a valid event channels may not turn invalid (bsc#1176346,XSA-338)

  • CVE-2020-25596: Fixed a potential denial of service in x86 pv guest kernel via SYSENTER (bsc#1176345,XSA-339)

  • CVE-2020-25603: Fixed an issue due to missing barriers when accessing/allocating an event channel (bsc#1176347,XSA-340)

  • CVE-2020-25600: Fixed out of bounds event channels available to 32-bit x86 domains (bsc#1176348,XSA-342)

  • CVE-2020-25599: Fixed race conditions with evtchn_reset() (bsc#1176349,XSA-343)

  • CVE-2020-25601: Fixed an issue due to lack of preemption in evtchn_reset() / evtchn_destroy() (bsc#1176350,XSA-344)

  • Various bug fixes (bsc#1027519)

Record
SUSE-SU-2020:2790-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2020:2791-1 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

  • CVE-2020-25602: Fixed an issue where there was a crash when handling guest access to MSR_MISC_ENABLE was thrown (bsc#1176339,XSA-333)
  • CVE-2020-25598: Added a missing unlock in XENMEM_acquire_resource error path (bsc#1176341,XSA-334)
  • CVE-2020-25604: Fixed a race condition when migrating timers between x86 HVM vCPU-s (bsc#1176343,XSA-336)
  • CVE-2020-25595: Fixed an issue where PCI passthrough code was reading back hardware registers (bsc#1176344,XSA-337)
  • CVE-2020-25597: Fixed an issue where a valid event channels may not turn invalid (bsc#1176346,XSA-338)
  • CVE-2020-25596: Fixed a potential denial of service in x86 pv guest kernel via SYSENTER (bsc#1176345,XSA-339)
  • CVE-2020-25603: Fixed an issue due to missing barriers when accessing/allocating an event channel (bsc#1176347,XSA-340)
  • CVE-2020-25600: Fixed out of bounds event channels available to 32-bit x86 domains (bsc#1176348,XSA-342)
  • CVE-2020-25599: Fixed race conditions with evtchn_reset() (bsc#1176349,XSA-343)
  • CVE-2020-25601: Fixed an issue due to lack of preemption in evtchn_reset() / evtchn_destroy() (bsc#1176350,XSA-344)
  • Various other fixes (bsc#1027519)
Record
SUSE-SU-2020:2791-1
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
xen
Alpine:v3.10
4.12.0 up to 4.12.3-r4
4.12.3-r4
xen
Alpine:v3.11
4.12.0 up to 4.13.1-r4
4.13.1-r4
xen
Alpine:v3.12
4.12.0 up to 4.13.1-r4
4.13.1-r4
xen
Alpine:v3.13
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.14
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.15
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.16
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.17
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.18
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.19
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
Show 14 moreShow less
Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
xen
Alpine:v3.20
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.21
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.22
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.23
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.24
4.12.0 up to 4.14.0-r1
4.14.0-r1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5
From an advisory covering 11 CVEs
before 4.12.3_08-3.24.1
4.12.3_08-3.24.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5
From an advisory covering 11 CVEs
before 4.12.3_08-3.24.1
4.12.3_08-3.24.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5
From an advisory covering 11 CVEs
before 4.12.3_08-3.24.1
4.12.3_08-3.24.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1
From an advisory covering 10 CVEs
before 4.12.3_08-3.28.1
4.12.3_08-3.28.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP1
From an advisory covering 10 CVEs
before 4.12.3_08-3.28.1
4.12.3_08-3.28.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2
From an advisory covering 10 CVEs
before 4.13.1_08-3.10.1
4.13.1_08-3.10.1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP2
From an advisory covering 10 CVEs
before 4.13.1_08-3.10.1
4.13.1_08-3.10.1
xen
openSUSE:Leap 15.2
From an advisory covering 10 CVEs
before 4.13.1_08-lp152.2.9.1
4.13.1_08-lp152.2.9.1
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-2020-25598 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.5) in Xen, published September 23, 2020. 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 4.12.3-r4.

References

Show 116 moreShow less
MoveEnter Open