CVE-2022-42336
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family...
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
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
- Low
- Availability
- None
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
3.3
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
- Record
CVE-2022-42336- CVSS 3.1
- 3.3 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List
3.3
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
- Record
CVE-2022-42336- CVSS 3.1
- 3.3 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2022-45411
3.3
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
- Record
EUVD-2022-45411- CVSS 3.1
- 3.3 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-79pv-m8fc-mhfj
3.3
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family...
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
- Record
GHSA-79pv-m8fc-mhfj- CVSS 3.1
- 3.3 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2022-42336
3.3
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
- Record
ALPINE-CVE-2022-42336- CVSS 3.1
- 3.3 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-03
OSV
3.3
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
- Record
CVE-2022-42336- CVSS 3.1
- 3.3 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
Show 5 moreShow less
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2022-42336
3.3
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2022-42336- CVSS 3.1
- 3.3 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-03
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2022-42336
3.3
Mishandling of guest SSBD selection on AMD hardware The current logic to set SSBD on AMD Family 17h and Hygon Family 18h processors requires that the setting of SSBD is coordinated at a core level, as the setting is shared between threads. Logic was introduced to keep track of how many threads require SSBD active in order to coordinate it, such logic relies on using a per-core counter of threads that have SSBD active. When running on the mentioned hardware, it's possible for a guest to under or overflow the thread counter, because each write to VIRT_SPEC_CTRL.SSBD by the guest gets propagated to the helper that does the per-core active accounting. Underflowing the counter causes the value to get saturated, and thus attempts for guests running on the same core to set SSBD won't have effect because the hypervisor assumes it's already active.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2022-42336- CVSS 3.1
- 3.3 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVMGASA-2024-0047 No score
Updated xen, qemu and libvirt packages fix security vulnerabilities
This update fixes several security issues and also improves stability.
- Record
MGASA-2024-0047- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2024:12959-1 No score
xen-4.17.1_04-1.1 on GA media
These are all security issues fixed in the xen-4.17.1_04-1.1 package on the GA media of openSUSE Tumbleweed.
- Record
openSUSE-SU-2024:12959-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVSUSE-SU-2023:2535-1 No score
Security update for xen
This update for xen fixes the following issues:
Security fixes:
- CVE-2022-42336: Fix an issue where guests configuring AMD Speculative Store Bypass Disable would have no effect (XSA-431) (bsc#1211433).
- CVE-2022-42335: Fixed an issue where guests running under shadow mode with a PCI devices passed through could force the hypervisor to dereference arbitrary memory, leading to a denial of service (XSA-430) (bsc#1210315).
Non-security fixes:
- Fixed a build warning false positive (bsc#1210570).
- Added missing debug-info to xen-syms (bsc#1209237).
- Updated to version 4.17.1 (bsc#1027519).
- Fixed a failure during VM destruction when using host-assisted kexec and kdump (bsc#1209245).
- Other upstream fixes (bsc#1027519).
- Record
SUSE-SU-2023:2535-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
xenAlpine:v3.18 |
before 4.17.1-r1 | 4.17.1-r1 |
xenAlpine:v3.19 |
before 4.17.1-r1 | 4.17.1-r1 |
xenAlpine:v3.20 |
before 4.17.1-r1 | 4.17.1-r1 |
xenAlpine:v3.21 |
before 4.17.1-r1 | 4.17.1-r1 |
xenAlpine:v3.22 |
before 4.17.1-r1 | 4.17.1-r1 |
xenAlpine:v3.23 |
before 4.17.1-r1 | 4.17.1-r1 |
xenAlpine:v3.24 |
before 4.17.1-r1 | 4.17.1-r1 |
xenDebian:12 |
before 4.17.1+2-gb773c48e36-1 | 4.17.1+2-gb773c48e36-1 |
xenDebian:13 |
before 4.17.1+2-gb773c48e36-1 | 4.17.1+2-gb773c48e36-1 |
xenDebian:14 |
before 4.17.1+2-gb773c48e36-1 | 4.17.1+2-gb773c48e36-1 |
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| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
qemuMageia:9 From an advisory covering 4 CVEs |
before 7.2.9-1.mga9 | 7.2.9-1.mga9 |
libvirtMageia:9 From an advisory covering 4 CVEs |
before 9.6.0-1.mga9 | 9.6.0-1.mga9 |
xenMageia:9 From an advisory covering 4 CVEs |
before 4.17.3-1.mga9 | 4.17.3-1.mga9 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 From an advisory covering 2 CVEs |
before 4.17.1_04-150500.3.3.1 | 4.17.1_04-150500.3.3.1 |
xenSUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP5 From an advisory covering 2 CVEs |
before 4.17.1_04-150500.3.3.1 | 4.17.1_04-150500.3.3.1 |
xenopenSUSE:Leap 15.5 From an advisory covering 2 CVEs |
before 4.17.1_04-150500.3.3.1 | 4.17.1_04-150500.3.3.1 |
xenUbuntu: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 less4.6.0-1ubuntu4.14.6.0-1ubuntu4.24.6.0-1ubuntu4.34.6.5-0ubuntu14.6.5-0ubuntu1.14.6.5-0ubuntu1.24.6.5-0ubuntu1.4 |
None known |
xenUbuntu:18.04:LTS |
All versions, plus listed versions 4.9.0-0ubuntu34.9.0-0ubuntu44.9.2-0ubuntu1 |
None known |
xenUbuntu: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 |
xenUbuntu: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 |
xenUbuntu: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 |
xenUbuntu:25.10 |
All versions, plus listed versions 4.20.0-1ubuntu14.20.0+68-g35cb38b222-1 |
None known |
xenUbuntu: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 |
xenUbuntu: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 |
xenopenSUSE:Tumbleweed |
before 4.17.1_04-1.1 | 4.17.1_04-1.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| affected, facts | OSV | |
| 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-2022-42336 is a low vulnerability (CVSS 3.3) in Xen, published May 17, 2023. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.27%, the 18th percentile. Fixed in xen 4.17.1-r1.
References
xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-431.txt
lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/LTO3U3WYLAZW3KLPKJZ332FYUREXPZMQ
xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-431.html
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-42336
lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/LTO3U3WYLAZW3KLPKJZ332FYUREXPZMQ
github.com/advisories/GHSA-79pv-m8fc-mhfj
Show 19 moreShow less
security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-42336
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-42336
advisories.mageia.org/MGASA-2024-0047.html
bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32332
xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-449.html
xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-450.html
suse.com/support/update/announcement/2023/suse-su-20232535-1
bugzilla.suse.com/1027519
bugzilla.suse.com/1208736
bugzilla.suse.com/1209237
bugzilla.suse.com/1209245
bugzilla.suse.com/1210315
bugzilla.suse.com/1210570
bugzilla.suse.com/1211433
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-42335
suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-42336
ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-42336
openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/05/16/5
cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-42336