vulnerability
Debian: CVE-2023-46836: xen -- security update
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | (AV:L/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:N/A:N) | 01/05/2024 | 07/30/2024 | 01/28/2025 |
Description
The fixes for XSA-422 (Branch Type Confusion) and XSA-434 (Speculative
Return Stack Overflow) are not IRQ-safe. It was believed that the
mitigations always operated in contexts with IRQs disabled.
However, the original XSA-254 fix for Meltdown (XPTI) deliberately left
interrupts enabled on two entry paths; one unconditionally, and one
conditionally on whether XPTI was active.
As BTC/SRSO and Meltdown affect different CPU vendors, the mitigations
are not active together by default. Therefore, there is a race
condition whereby a malicious PV guest can bypass BTC/SRSO protections
and launch a BTC/SRSO attack against Xen.
Solution
Explore Exposure Command
Confidently identify and prioritize exposures from endpoint to cloud with full attack surface visibility and threat-aware risk context.