CVE-2020-29479
(Deleting the whole xenstore tree is a host-wide denial of service.) Achieving xenstore write access is also possible.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.31%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. In the Ocaml xenstored implementation, the internal representation of the tree has special cases for the root node, because this node has no parent. Unfortunately, permissions were not checked for certain operations on the root node. Unprivileged guests can get and modify permissions, list, and delete the root node. (Deleting the whole xenstore tree is a host-wide denial of service.) Achieving xenstore write access is also possible. All systems using oxenstored are vulnerable. Building and using oxenstored is the default in the upstream Xen distribution, if the Ocaml compiler is available. Systems using C xenstored are not vulnerable.
- CVSS 3.1
- 8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.31% probability · 23th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-862
- Affected
- xen/xen · debian/debian linux · fedoraproject/fedora
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS 0.3% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2C6M6S3CIMEBACH6O7V4H2VDANMO6TVA/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/OBLV6L6Q24PPQ2CRFXDX4Q76KU776GKI/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202107-30Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4812Third Party Advisory
- https://xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-353.htmlPatch, Vendor Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2C6M6S3CIMEBACH6O7V4H2VDANMO6TVA/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/OBLV6L6Q24PPQ2CRFXDX4Q76KU776GKI/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202107-30Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4812Third Party Advisory
- https://xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-353.htmlPatch, Vendor Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.