Xen, when used on a system providing PV backends, allows local guest OS administrators to cause a denial of service (host OS crash) or gain privileges by writing to memory shared between the frontend and backend, aka a double fetch vulnerability.
The MITRE CVE dictionary describes this issue as:
Find out more about CVE-2015-8550 from the MITRE CVE dictionary dictionary and NIST NVD.
NOTE: The following CVSS v2 metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
| Base Score | 7.4 |
|---|---|
| Base Metrics | AV:A/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C |
| Access Vector | Adjacent Network |
| Access Complexity | Medium |
| Authentication | Single |
| Confidentiality Impact | Complete |
| Integrity Impact | Complete |
| Availability Impact | Complete |
Find out more about Red Hat support for the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
| Platform | Package | State |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | kernel-xen | Will not fix |
Vulmon