CVE-2017-10916
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory...
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
7.5
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
- Record
CVE-2017-10916- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N - CVSS 2.0
- 5.0 Medium
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N - Weakness
- CWE-200
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
- Record
CVE-2017-10916- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2017-2554 No score
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
- Record
EUVD-2017-2554- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-vrf7-6p2g-pr3x
7.5
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory...
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
- Record
GHSA-vrf7-6p2g-pr3x- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N - Weakness
- CWE-200
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2017-10916
7.5
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
- Record
ALPINE-CVE-2017-10916- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
7.5
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
- Record
CVE-2017-10916- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2017-10916
7.5
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2017-10916- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2017-10916
7.5
The vCPU context-switch implementation in Xen through 4.8.x improperly interacts with the Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) and Protection Key (PKU) features, which makes it easier for guest OS users to defeat ASLR and other protection mechanisms, aka XSA-220.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2017-10916- CVSS 3.0
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N - 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:v3.10 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.11 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.12 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.13 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.14 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.15 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.16 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.17 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.18 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.19 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
Show 19 moreShow less
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
xenAlpine:v3.20 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.21 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.22 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.23 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.24 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.3 |
before 4.6.6-r0 | 4.6.6-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.4 |
before 4.6.6-r0 | 4.6.6-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.5 |
before 4.7.3-r0 | 4.7.3-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.6 |
before 4.8.2-r0 | 4.8.2-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.7 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.8 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenAlpine:v3.9 |
before 4.9.0-r0 | 4.9.0-r0 |
xenDebian:12 |
before 4.8.1-1+deb9u3 | 4.8.1-1+deb9u3 |
xenDebian:13 |
before 4.8.1-1+deb9u3 | 4.8.1-1+deb9u3 |
xenDebian:14 |
before 4.8.1-1+deb9u3 | 4.8.1-1+deb9u3 |
xenSUSE:OpenStack Cloud 6 From an advisory covering 17 CVEs |
before 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 | 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1 From an advisory covering 17 CVEs |
before 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 | 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1-LTSS From an advisory covering 17 CVEs |
before 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 | 4.5.5_12-22.18.1 |
xenUbuntu:16.04:LTS |
before 4.6.5-0ubuntu1.2, plus listed versions 4.5.1-0ubuntu14.5.1-0ubuntu24.6.0-1ubuntu14.6.0-1ubuntu24.6.0-1ubuntu4 Show 5 moreShow less4.6.0-1ubuntu4.14.6.0-1ubuntu4.24.6.0-1ubuntu4.34.6.5-0ubuntu14.6.5-0ubuntu1.1 |
4.6.5-0ubuntu1.2 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| affected, facts | ||
| 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-2017-10916 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.5) in Xen, published July 5, 2017. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.35%, the 71st percentile. Fixed in xen 4.9.0-r0.
References
xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-220.html
security.gentoo.org/glsa/201708-03
debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3969
securitytracker.com/id/1038730
securityfocus.com/bid/99167
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-10916
Show 41 moreShow less
github.com/advisories/GHSA-vrf7-6p2g-pr3x
security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2017-10916
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-10916
suse.com/support/update/announcement/2017/suse-su-20171812-1
bugzilla.suse.com/1014136
bugzilla.suse.com/1026236
bugzilla.suse.com/1027519
bugzilla.suse.com/1031460
bugzilla.suse.com/1034845
bugzilla.suse.com/1036470
bugzilla.suse.com/1037243
bugzilla.suse.com/1042160
bugzilla.suse.com/1042863
bugzilla.suse.com/1042882
bugzilla.suse.com/1042893
bugzilla.suse.com/1042915
bugzilla.suse.com/1042923
bugzilla.suse.com/1042924
bugzilla.suse.com/1042931
bugzilla.suse.com/1042938
bugzilla.suse.com/1043074
bugzilla.suse.com/1043297
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10911
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10912
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10913
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10914
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10915
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10916
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10917
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10918
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10920
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10921
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10922
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-8112
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-8309
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-8905
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9330
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9374
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9503
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-10916
cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-10916