CVE-2024-45818

Deadlock in x86 HVM standard VGA handling

Published Dec 19, 2024 CVSS 3.1 · 6.5 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
The hypervisor contains code to accelerate VGA memory accesses for HVM
guests, when the (virtual) VGA is in "standard" mode. Locking involved
there has an unusual discipline, leaving a lock acquired past the
return from the function that acquired it. This behavior results in a
problem when emulating an instruction with two memory accesses, both of
which touch VGA memory (plus some further constraints which aren't
relevant here). When emulating the 2nd access, the lock that is already
being held would be attempted to be re-acquired, resulting in a
deadlock.

This deadlock was already found when the code was first introduced, but
was analysed incorrectly and the fix was incomplete. Analysis in light
of the new finding cannot find a way to make the existing locking
discipline work.

In staging, this logic has all been removed because it was discovered
to be accidentally disabled since Xen 4.7. Therefore, we are fixing the
locking problem by backporting the removal of most of the feature. Note
that even with the feature disabled, the lock would still be acquired
for any accesses to the VGA MMIO region.

Remediation

Vendor Workaround

Running only PV or PVH guests will avoid this vulnerability.

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-5836-1 xen security update
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics epss

{'score': 0.00041}

epss

{'score': 0.00042}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics epss

{'score': 0.00036}

epss

{'score': 0.00041}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics epss

{'score': 0.00044}

epss

{'score': 0.00036}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Xen
Xen xen
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:*:*:*:*:*:*:x86:*
Vendors & Products Xen
Xen xen
Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-667
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N'}

ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description The hypervisor contains code to accelerate VGA memory accesses for HVM guests, when the (virtual) VGA is in "standard" mode. Locking involved there has an unusual discipline, leaving a lock acquired past the return from the function that acquired it. This behavior results in a problem when emulating an instruction with two memory accesses, both of which touch VGA memory (plus some further constraints which aren't relevant here). When emulating the 2nd access, the lock that is already being held would be attempted to be re-acquired, resulting in a deadlock. This deadlock was already found when the code was first introduced, but was analysed incorrectly and the fix was incomplete. Analysis in light of the new finding cannot find a way to make the existing locking discipline work. In staging, this logic has all been removed because it was discovered to be accidentally disabled since Xen 4.7. Therefore, we are fixing the locking problem by backporting the removal of most of the feature. Note that even with the feature disabled, the lock would still be acquired for any accesses to the VGA MMIO region.
Title Deadlock in x86 HVM standard VGA handling
References
Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
XEN
Published
Updated
Dec 31, 2024, 7:01 PM
Reserved
Sep 9, 2024, 2:43 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Dec 19, 2024, 12:15 PM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 7:54 AM