CVE-2018-14678

xen: Uninitialized state in x86 PV failsafe callback path (XSA-274)

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Severity

Moderate

Red Hat Product Security

CVSS 3.1

Review impact separately from score.

Published · July 25, 2018

Updated · June 28, 2026

Description

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel through 4.17.11, as used in Xen through 4.11.x. The xen_failsafe_callback entry point in arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S does not properly maintain RBX, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (uninitialized memory usage and system crash). Within Xen, 64-bit x86 PV Linux guest OS users can trigger a guest OS crash or possibly gain privileges.

Statement

This issue only affects guests running as Xen paravirtualized (PV) guests. Starting with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 onwards running Red Hat Enterprise Linux installations as Xen PV guests is not supported.

CVSS score applicability

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation

No mitigation is specified in collected source.

CVSS / CWE

CVSS 3.1 · 7
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE-119 · Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer