FreeBSD : xen-kernel -- ioreq handling possibly susceptible to multiple read issue (6aa2d135-b40e-11e5-9728-002590263bf5)

high Nessus Plugin ID 87746

Synopsis

The remote FreeBSD host is missing a security-related update.

Description

The Xen Project reports :

Single memory accesses in source code can be translated to multiple ones in machine code by the compiler, requiring special caution when accessing shared memory. Such precaution was missing from the hypervisor code inspecting the state of I/O requests sent to the device model for assistance.

Due to the offending field being a bitfield, it is however believed that there is no issue in practice, since compilers, at least when optimizing (which is always the case for non-debug builds), should find it more expensive to extract the bit field value twice than to keep the calculated value in a register.

This vulnerability is exposed to malicious device models. In conventional Xen systems this means the qemu which service an HVM domain. On such systems this vulnerability can only be exploited if the attacker has gained control of the device model qemu via another vulnerability.

Privilege escalation, host crash (Denial of Service), and leaked information all cannot be excluded.

Solution

Update the affected package.

See Also

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=205841

http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-166.html

http://www.nessus.org/u?796052b3

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 87746

File Name: freebsd_pkg_6aa2d135b40e11e59728002590263bf5.nasl

Version: 2.3

Type: local

Published: 1/6/2016

Updated: 1/4/2021

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:freebsd:freebsd:xen-kernel, cpe:/o:freebsd:freebsd

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/FreeBSD/release, Host/FreeBSD/pkg_info

Patch Publication Date: 1/6/2016

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/17/2015