An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. There is a lack of preemption in evtchn_reset() / evtchn_destroy(). In particular, the FIFO event channel model allows guests to have a large number of event channels active at a time. Closing all of these (when resetting all event channels or when cleaning up after the guest) may take extended periods of time. So far, there was no arrangement for preemption at suitable intervals, allowing a CPU to spend an almost unbounded amount of time in the processing of these operations. Malicious or buggy guest kernels can mount a Denial of Service (DoS) attack affecting the entire system. All Xen versions are vulnerable in principle. Whether versions 4.3 and older are vulnerable depends on underlying hardware characteristics.
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Linux | — | Upgrade xen | Oct 22, 2020 | Sep 23, 2020 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade xen | Oct 5, 2020 | Sep 23, 2020 |
| Gentoo Linux | — | Upgrade app-emulation/xen.Upgrade app-emulation/xen-tools. | Nov 12, 2020 | Sep 23, 2020 |
| Redhat_linux | — | No solution exists | Jul 9, 2025 | Sep 23, 2020 |
| Suse | — | Upgrade xen-kmp-defaultUpgrade xen-toolsUpgrade xenUpgrade xen-libs-32bitUpgrade xen-doc-htmlUpgrade xen-kmp-paeUpgrade xen-libsUpgrade xen-tools-domUUpgrade xen-develUpgrade xen-tools-xendomains-wait-disk | Feb 7, 2021 | Sep 23, 2020 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade libxengnttab1Upgrade xenstore-utilsUpgrade libxendevicemodel1Upgrade xen-hypervisor-4.11-amd64Upgrade xen-hypervisor-4.11-arm64Upgrade libxenmisc4.11Upgrade xen-hypervisor-4.11-armhfUpgrade xen-utils-commonUpgrade xen-utils-4.11Upgrade libxenevtchn1 | Sep 20, 2022 | Sep 23, 2020 |
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