Updated xen packages that fix several security issues and a bug are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The xen packages contain tools for managing the virtual machine monitor in Red Hat Virtualization.

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

Daniel P. Berrange discovered that the hypervisor's para-virtualized framebuffer (PVFB) backend failed to validate the format of messages serving to update the contents of the framebuffer. This could allow a malicious user to cause a denial of service, or compromise the privileged domain (Dom0). (CVE-2008-1944)

Markus Armbruster discovered that the hypervisor's para-virtualized framebuffer (PVFB) backend failed to validate the frontend's framebuffer description. This could allow a malicious user to cause a denial of service, or to use a specially crafted frontend to compromise the privileged domain (Dom0). (CVE-2008-1943)

Chris Wright discovered a security vulnerability in the QEMU block format auto-detection, when running fully-virtualized guests. Such fully-virtualized guests, with a raw formatted disk image, were able to write a header to that disk image describing another format. This could allow such guests to read arbitrary files in their hypervisor's host. (CVE-2008-2004)

Ian Jackson discovered a security vulnerability in the QEMU block device drivers backend. A guest operating system could issue a block device request and read or write arbitrary memory locations, which could lead to privilege escalation. (CVE-2008-0928)

Tavis Ormandy found that QEMU did not perform adequate sanity-checking of data received via the 'net socket listen' option. A malicious local administrator of a guest domain could trigger this flaw to potentially execute arbitrary code outside of the domain. (CVE-2007-5730)

Steve Kemp discovered that the xenbaked daemon and the XenMon utility communicated via an insecure temporary file. A malicious local administrator of a guest domain could perform a symbolic link attack, causing arbitrary files to be truncated. (CVE-2007-3919)

As well, in the previous xen packages, it was possible for Dom0 to fail to flush data from a fully-virtualized guest to disk, even if the guest explicitly requested the flush. This could cause data integrity problems on the guest. In these updated packages, Dom0 always respects the request to flush to disk.

Users of xen are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues.

The remote OracleVM system is missing necessary patches to address critical security updates :

  - CVE-2008-1945: add image format options for USB storage     and removable media

  - CVE-2008-1952: included in fix for CVE-2008-1943     (3.1.4-0.1.3.el5)

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2008:0194 :

Updated xen packages that fix several security issues and a bug are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The xen packages contain tools for managing the virtual machine monitor in Red Hat Virtualization.

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

Daniel P. Berrange discovered that the hypervisor's para-virtualized framebuffer (PVFB) backend failed to validate the format of messages serving to update the contents of the framebuffer. This could allow a malicious user to cause a denial of service, or compromise the privileged domain (Dom0). (CVE-2008-1944)

Markus Armbruster discovered that the hypervisor's para-virtualized framebuffer (PVFB) backend failed to validate the frontend's framebuffer description. This could allow a malicious user to cause a denial of service, or to use a specially crafted frontend to compromise the privileged domain (Dom0). (CVE-2008-1943)

Chris Wright discovered a security vulnerability in the QEMU block format auto-detection, when running fully-virtualized guests. Such fully-virtualized guests, with a raw formatted disk image, were able to write a header to that disk image describing another format. This could allow such guests to read arbitrary files in their hypervisor's host. (CVE-2008-2004)

Ian Jackson discovered a security vulnerability in the QEMU block device drivers backend. A guest operating system could issue a block device request and read or write arbitrary memory locations, which could lead to privilege escalation. (CVE-2008-0928)

Tavis Ormandy found that QEMU did not perform adequate sanity-checking of data received via the 'net socket listen' option. A malicious local administrator of a guest domain could trigger this flaw to potentially execute arbitrary code outside of the domain. (CVE-2007-5730)

Steve Kemp discovered that the xenbaked daemon and the XenMon utility communicated via an insecure temporary file. A malicious local administrator of a guest domain could perform a symbolic link attack, causing arbitrary files to be truncated. (CVE-2007-3919)

As well, in the previous xen packages, it was possible for Dom0 to fail to flush data from a fully-virtualized guest to disk, even if the guest explicitly requested the flush. This could cause data integrity problems on the guest. In these updated packages, Dom0 always respects the request to flush to disk.

Users of xen are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues.

Note: Troy Dawson has tested this update on a machine hosting both paravirtualized and fully virtualized machines, both 32 bit and 64 bit. He did the update while all the machines were running, none of them had any problems. He also tried stopping, starting, and rebooting several of the machines. All without any problems. We tell you this because updating the xen package, while running virtual machines, can make you a little nervous.

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

Daniel P. Berrange discovered that the hypervisor's para-virtualized framebuffer (PVFB) backend failed to validate the format of messages serving to update the contents of the framebuffer. This could allow a malicious user to cause a denial of service, or compromise the privileged domain (Dom0). (CVE-2008-1944)

Markus Armbruster discovered that the hypervisor's para-virtualized framebuffer (PVFB) backend failed to validate the frontend's framebuffer description. This could allow a malicious user to cause a denial of service, or to use a specially crafted frontend to compromise the privileged domain (Dom0). (CVE-2008-1943)

Chris Wright discovered a security vulnerability in the QEMU block format auto-detection, when running fully-virtualized guests. Such fully-virtualized guests, with a raw formatted disk image, were able to write a header to that disk image describing another format. This could allow such guests to read arbitrary files in their hypervisor's host. (CVE-2008-2004)

Ian Jackson discovered a security vulnerability in the QEMU block device drivers backend. A guest operating system could issue a block device request and read or write arbitrary memory locations, which could lead to privilege escalation. (CVE-2008-0928)

Tavis Ormandy found that QEMU did not perform adequate sanity-checking of data received via the 'net socket listen' option. A malicious local administrator of a guest domain could trigger this flaw to potentially execute arbitrary code outside of the domain. (CVE-2007-5730)

Steve Kemp discovered that the xenbaked daemon and the XenMon utility communicated via an insecure temporary file. A malicious local administrator of a guest domain could perform a symbolic link attack, causing arbitrary files to be truncated. (CVE-2007-3919)

As well, in the previous xen packages, it was possible for Dom0 to fail to flush data from a fully-virtualized guest to disk, even if the guest explicitly requested the flush. This could cause data integrity problems on the guest. In these updated packages, Dom0 always respects the request to flush to disk.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2008:0194 advisory.

  - xen xenmon.py / xenbaked insecure temporary file accesss (CVE-2007-3919)

  - QEMU Buffer overflow via crafted net socket listen option (CVE-2007-5730)

  - Qemu insufficient block device address range checking (CVE-2008-0928)

  - PVFB backend fails to validate frontend's framebuffer description (CVE-2008-1943)

  - PVFB SDL backend chokes on bogus screen updates (CVE-2008-1944)

  - qemu/kvm/xen: qemu block format auto-detection vulnerability (CVE-2008-2004)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
43678	CentOS 5 : xen (CESA-2008:0194)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	1/6/2010	1/4/2021	high
79449	OracleVM 2.1 : xen (OVMSA-2008-2007)	Nessus	OracleVM Local Security Checks	11/26/2014	1/14/2021	medium
67671	Oracle Linux 5 : xen (ELSA-2008-0194)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	1/14/2021	high
60398	Scientific Linux Security Update : xen on SL5.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/1/2012	1/14/2021	high
32354	RHEL 5 : xen (RHSA-2008:0194)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	5/16/2008	4/21/2024	high

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