CVE-2026-42493

x86 shadow paging is deprecated

Published Jul 28, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 7.5 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Addressing certain issues, in particular related to operations which may
take excessively long and therefore would need preemption, has turned out
overly costly. Since alternatives (HVM/PVH: HAP, PV: shim) are commonly
available, the decision was to deprecate the functionality, while still
retaining it for people to use at their own (security) risk. Memory-wise
small enough guests may still be okay to run.

Remediation

Vendor Workaround

Running HVM and PVH in Hardware Assisted Paging (HAP) mode will avoid this vulnerability. There's no mitigation available for PV guests. This is because shadow mode, if support is enabled in the hypervisor, could be engaged at any time. Note that without shadow mode built into Xen, guests not properly dealing with L1TF will simply be crashed instead.

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-4818-1 xen security update
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-6424-1 xen security update
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Xen
Xen xen
Vendors & Products Xen
Xen xen
Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-400
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Addressing certain issues, in particular related to operations which may take excessively long and therefore would need preemption, has turned out overly costly. Since alternatives (HVM/PVH: HAP, PV: shim) are commonly available, the decision was to deprecate the functionality, while still retaining it for people to use at their own (security) risk. Memory-wise small enough guests may still be okay to run.
Title x86 shadow paging is deprecated
References
Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
XEN
Published
Updated
Jul 28, 2026, 4:33 PM
Reserved
Apr 27, 2026, 2:20 PM
Status
Deferred
Published
Jul 28, 2026, 1:18 PM
Modified
Jul 28, 2026, 5:16 PM