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CVE-2021-28703

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get...

7.0 HighFix available

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges needed
Low
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Exploit likelihood

0.33%Down 0.1 points since Dec 8, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 7.0

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Record
CVE-2021-28703
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.0
6.9 MediumAV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Updated
2026-11-02
CVE List No score

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Record
CVE-2021-28703
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2021-15360 No score

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Record
EUVD-2021-15360
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-mj29-93c5-p3pr 7.0

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get...

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Record
GHSA-mj29-93c5-p3pr
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2021-28703 7.0

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Record
ALPINE-CVE-2021-28703
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 7.0

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Record
CVE-2021-28703
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2021-28703 7.0

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2021-28703
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2021-28703 7.0

grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) Guest get permitted access to certain Xen-owned pages of memory. The majority of such pages remain allocated / associated with a guest for its entire lifetime. Grant table v2 status pages, however, get de-allocated when a guest switched (back) from v2 to v1. The freeing of such pages requires that the hypervisor know where in the guest these pages were mapped. The hypervisor tracks only one use within guest space, but racing requests from the guest to insert mappings of these pages may result in any of them to become mapped in multiple locations. Upon switching back from v2 to v1, the guest would then retain access to a page that was freed and perhaps re-used for other purposes. This bug was fortuitously fixed by code cleanup in Xen 4.14, and backported to security-supported Xen branches as a prerequisite of the fix for XSA-378.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2021-28703
CVSS 3.1
7.0 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2021:14848-1 No score

Security update for xen

This update for xen fixes the following issues:

  • CVE-2021-0089: Fixed Speculative Code Store Bypass (XSA-375) (bsc#1186433).
  • CVE-2021-20255: Fixed stack overflow via infinite recursion in eepro100 (bsc#1182654).
  • CVE-2021-28690: Fixed x86 TSX Async Abort protections not restored after S3 (XSA-377) (bsc#1186434).
  • CVE-2021-28692: Fixed inappropriate x86 IOMMU timeout detection / handling (XSA-373) (bsc#1186429).
  • CVE-2021-28697: Fixed grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (XSA-379) (bsc#1189376).
  • CVE-2021-28698: Fixed long running loops in grant table handling. (XSA-380) (bsc#1189378).
  • CVE-2021-28701: Fixed race condition in XENMAPSPACE_grant_table handling (XSA-384) (bsc#1189632).
  • CVE-2021-28703: Fixed grant table v2 status pages may remain accessible after de-allocation (take two) (XSA-387) (bsc#1192555).
  • CVE-2021-28705, CVE-2021-28709: Fixed issues with partially successful P2M updates on x86 (XSA-389) (bsc#1192559).
  • CVE-2021-28706: Fixed guests may exceed their designated memory limit (XSA-385) (bsc#1192554).
  • CVE-2021-3527: Fixed unbounded stack allocation in usbredir (bsc#1186013).
  • CVE-2021-3592: Fixed invalid pointer initialization may lead to information disclosure in slirp (bootp) (bsc#1187369).
  • CVE-2021-3594: Fixed invalid pointer initialization may lead to information disclosure in slirp (udp) (bsc#1187378).
  • CVE-2021-3595: Fixed invalid pointer initialization may lead to information disclosure in slirp (tftp) (bsc#1187376).
  • CVE-2021-3682: Fixed free call on invalid pointer in usbredir bufp_alloc (bsc#1189150).
  • CVE-2021-3930: Fixed off-by-one error in mode_sense_page() in hw/scsi/scsi-disk.c (bsc#1192526).
Record
SUSE-SU-2021:14848-1
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
xen
Alpine:v3.11
before 4.13.4-r0
4.13.4-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.12
before 4.13.4-r0
4.13.4-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.13
before 4.14.5-r0
4.14.5-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.14
before 4.15.2-r0
4.15.2-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.15
before 4.15.2-r0
4.15.2-r0
xen
Alpine:v3.16
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.17
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.18
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.19
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.20
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
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Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
xen
Alpine:v3.21
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.22
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.23
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
xen
Alpine:v3.24
before 4.15.1-r1
4.15.1-r1
xen
Debian:12
before 4.14.0+80-gd101b417b7-1
4.14.0+80-gd101b417b7-1
xen
Debian:13
before 4.14.0+80-gd101b417b7-1
4.14.0+80-gd101b417b7-1
xen
Debian:14
before 4.14.0+80-gd101b417b7-1
4.14.0+80-gd101b417b7-1
xen
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4-LTSS
From an advisory covering 17 CVEs
before 4.4.4_50-61.67.1
4.4.4_50-61.67.1
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
Show 7 moreShow less
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
xen
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
4.11.4+24-gddaaccbbab-1ubuntu24.16.0-1~ubuntu24.16.0-1~ubuntu2.1
None known
xen
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
4.17.2-14.17.2+55-g0b56bed864-14.17.2+76-ge1f9cb16e2-14.17.2+76-ge1f9cb16e2-1ubuntu14.17.3+10-g091466ba55-14.17.3+10-g091466ba55-1.1ubuntu24.17.3+10-g091466ba55-1.1ubuntu3
None known
xen
Ubuntu:25.10
All versions, plus listed versions
4.20.0-1ubuntu14.20.0+68-g35cb38b222-1
None known
xen
Ubuntu:26.10
All versions, plus listed versions
4.20.2+7-g1badcf5035-2build24.20.2+37-g61ff35323e-1ubuntu14.20.3+127-gc42374a105-1
None known
xen
Ubuntu:26.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
4.20.0+68-g35cb38b222-14.20.2+7-g1badcf5035-24.20.2+7-g1badcf5035-2build2
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-2021-28703 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.0) in Xen, published December 1, 2021. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.33%, the 26th percentile. Fixed in xen 4.13.4-r0.

References

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