Skip to main content

Xen CVE-2015-8550

HIGH
Improper Access Control (CWE-284)
2016-04-14 cve@mitre.org
8.2
CVSS 3.0 · NVD
View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Access control enforcement
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Defense Evasion

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Impact

CVSS score of 8.2 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: local attack vector, low complexity, high privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 15.96%.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

Successful exploitation could compromise the high-severity affected system.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: HIGH severity + EPSS > 10%.
No patch listed yet 16.0% exploitation probability (EPSS)

Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.

Alert me

AnalysisAI

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. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Epss exploitation probability 16.0% and no vendor patch available.

RemediationAI

No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-284. 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. Affected products include: Xen, Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Real Time Extension.

Know when Xen gets its next vulnerability

  • Watch products and get an email when something new is published
  • Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

No credit card · 7-day full trial

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 8.2 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
High
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

DescriptionCVE.org

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.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
16.0%
Top 5% exploitable
Data Quality
3 sources
Confidence: Low

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 16.0%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity + EPSS > 10%
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Defer
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

57
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: +16
CVSS: +41
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:novell:suse_linux_enterprise_real_time_extension:12:sp1:*:*:*:*:*:*

More in Xen

View all
CVE-2012-0217 HIGH POC
7.2 Jun 12

The x86-64 kernel system-call functionality in Xen 4.1.2 and earlier, as used in Citrix XenServer 6.0.2 and earlier and

CVE-2015-3456 HIGH POC
7.7 May 13

The Floppy Disk Controller (FDC) in QEMU, as used in Xen 4.5.x and earlier and KVM, allows local guest users to cause a

CVE-2018-8897 HIGH POC
7.8 May 08

A statement in the System Programming Guide of the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual (SDM) wa

CVE-2022-4949 HIGH POC
8.8 Jun 07

The AdSanity plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file uploads due to missing file type validation in the 'aj

CVE-2017-15595 HIGH POC
8.8 Oct 18

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.9.x allowing x86 PV guest OS users to cause a denial of service (unbounded recu

CVE-2017-7228 HIGH POC
8.2 Apr 04

An issue (known as XSA-212) was discovered in Xen, with fixes available for 4.8.x, 4.7.x, 4.6.x, 4.5.x, and 4.4.x. Rated

CVE-2015-5165 CRITICAL
9.3 Aug 12

The C+ mode offload emulation in the RTL8139 network card device model in QEMU, as used in Xen 4.5.x and earlier, allows

CVE-2022-26364 MEDIUM POC
6.7 Jun 09

x86 pv: Insufficient care with non-coherent mappings T[his CNA information record relates to multiple CVEs; the text exp

CVE-2017-10918 CRITICAL
10.0 Jul 05

Xen through 4.8.x does not validate memory allocations during certain P2M operations, which allows guest OS users to obt

CVE-2017-10912 CRITICAL
10.0 Jul 05

Xen through 4.8.x mishandles page transfer, which allows guest OS users to obtain privileged host OS access, aka XSA-217

CVE-2017-10921 CRITICAL
10.0 Jul 05

The grant-table feature in Xen through 4.8.x does not ensure sufficient type counts for a GNTMAP_device_map and GNTMAP_h

CVE-2017-10920 CRITICAL
10.0 Jul 05

The grant-table feature in Xen through 4.8.x mishandles a GNTMAP_device_map and GNTMAP_host_map mapping, when followed b

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy