CVE-2017-15596

An issue was discovered in Xen 4.4.x through 4.9.x allowing ARM guest OS users to cause a denial of service (prevent physical CPU usage) because of lock mishandling upon detection of an add-to-physmap error.

Weakness

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:

• The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.

• The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/147.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/227.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/492.html

References

• http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3969
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039568
• https://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-235.html
• http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3969
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1039568
• https://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-235.html