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CVE-2020-29486

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored...

6.0 MediumFix available

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
High
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

0.41%Down 0.9 points since Apr 14, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 6.0

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Record
CVE-2020-29486
CVSS 3.1
6.0 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 2.0
4.9 MediumAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C
Weakness
CWE-770
Updated
2026-11-02
CVE List No score

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Record
CVE-2020-29486
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2020-21854 No score

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Record
EUVD-2020-21854
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-423g-qv8g-mgcc No score

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored...

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Record
GHSA-423g-qv8g-mgcc
Weakness
CWE-770
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2020-29486 6.0

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Record
ALPINE-CVE-2020-29486
CVSS 3.1
6.0 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 6.0

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Record
CVE-2020-29486
CVSS 3.1
6.0 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2020-29486 6.0

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2020-29486
CVSS 3.1
6.0 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2020-29486 6.0

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Nodes in xenstore have an ownership. In oxenstored, a owner could give a node away. However, node ownership has quota implications. Any guest can run another guest out of quota, or create an unbounded number of nodes owned by dom0, thus running xenstored out of memory A malicious guest administrator can cause a denial of service against a specific guest or against the whole host. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2020-29486
CVSS 3.1
6.0 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
xen
Alpine:v3.11
before 4.13.2-r3
4.13.2-r3
xen
Alpine:v3.12
before 4.13.2-r3
4.13.2-r3
xen
Alpine:v3.13
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.14
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.15
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.16
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.17
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.18
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.19
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.20
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
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Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
xen
Alpine:v3.21
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.22
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.23
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.24
before 4.14.1-r0
4.14.1-r0
xen
Debian:12
before 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1
4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1
xen
Debian:13
before 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1
4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1
xen
Debian:14
before 4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1
4.14.0+88-g1d1d1f5391-1
xen
Debian:10
From an advisory covering 11 CVEs
before 4.11.4+57-g41a822c392-2, plus listed versions
4.11.1+92-g6c33308a8d-24.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-14.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1~deb10u14.11.4+24-gddaaccbbab-14.11.4+24-gddaaccbbab-1~deb10u14.11.4+37-g3263f257ca-14.11.4+57-g41a822c392-14.11.4-1
4.11.4+57-g41a822c392-2
xen
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
4.5.1-0ubuntu14.5.1-0ubuntu24.6.0-1ubuntu14.6.0-1ubuntu24.6.0-1ubuntu4
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4.6.0-1ubuntu4.14.6.0-1ubuntu4.24.6.0-1ubuntu4.34.6.5-0ubuntu14.6.5-0ubuntu1.14.6.5-0ubuntu1.24.6.5-0ubuntu1.4
None known
xen
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
4.9.0-0ubuntu34.9.0-0ubuntu44.9.2-0ubuntu1
None known
xen
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
4.9.2-0ubuntu24.9.2-0ubuntu64.9.2-0ubuntu74.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1ubuntu14.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1ubuntu24.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1ubuntu2.24.11.3+24-g14b62ab3e5-1ubuntu2.3
None known

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-2020-29486 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.0) in Xen, published December 15, 2020. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.41%, the 35th percentile. Fixed in xen 4.13.2-r3.

References

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