CVE-2023-46841 (GCVE-0-2023-46841)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5
Published
2024-03-20 10:40
Modified
2025-11-04 18:18
Severity ?
VLAI Severity ?
EPSS score ?
Summary
Recent x86 CPUs offer functionality named Control-flow Enforcement
Technology (CET). A sub-feature of this are Shadow Stacks (CET-SS).
CET-SS is a hardware feature designed to protect against Return Oriented
Programming attacks. When enabled, traditional stacks holding both data
and return addresses are accompanied by so called "shadow stacks",
holding little more than return addresses. Shadow stacks aren't
writable by normal instructions, and upon function returns their
contents are used to check for possible manipulation of a return address
coming from the traditional stack.
In particular certain memory accesses need intercepting by Xen. In
various cases the necessary emulation involves kind of replaying of
the instruction. Such replaying typically involves filling and then
invoking of a stub. Such a replayed instruction may raise an
exceptions, which is expected and dealt with accordingly.
Unfortunately the interaction of both of the above wasn't right:
Recovery involves removal of a call frame from the (traditional) stack.
The counterpart of this operation for the shadow stack was missing.
References
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"baseScore": 6.5,
"baseSeverity": "MEDIUM",
"confidentialityImpact": "NONE",
"integrityImpact": "NONE",
"privilegesRequired": "LOW",
"scope": "CHANGED",
"userInteraction": "NONE",
"vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H",
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"timestamp": "2024-03-25T16:09:38.636466Z",
"version": "2.0.3"
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"orgId": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
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"url": "http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-451.html"
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"title": "CVE Program Container"
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}
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"type": "finder",
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"value": "Recent x86 CPUs offer functionality named Control-flow Enforcement\nTechnology (CET). A sub-feature of this are Shadow Stacks (CET-SS).\nCET-SS is a hardware feature designed to protect against Return Oriented\nProgramming attacks. When enabled, traditional stacks holding both data\nand return addresses are accompanied by so called \"shadow stacks\",\nholding little more than return addresses. Shadow stacks aren\u0027t\nwritable by normal instructions, and upon function returns their\ncontents are used to check for possible manipulation of a return address\ncoming from the traditional stack.\n\nIn particular certain memory accesses need intercepting by Xen. In\nvarious cases the necessary emulation involves kind of replaying of\nthe instruction. Such replaying typically involves filling and then\ninvoking of a stub. Such a replayed instruction may raise an\nexceptions, which is expected and dealt with accordingly.\n\nUnfortunately the interaction of both of the above wasn\u0027t right:\nRecovery involves removal of a call frame from the (traditional) stack.\nThe counterpart of this operation for the shadow stack was missing."
}
],
"impacts": [
{
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "An unprivileged guest can cause a hypervisor crash, causing a Denial of\nService (DoS) of the entire host."
}
]
}
],
"providerMetadata": {
"dateUpdated": "2024-03-23T03:06:14.246Z",
"orgId": "23aa2041-22e1-471f-9209-9b7396fa234f",
"shortName": "XEN"
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"references": [
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"url": "https://xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-451.html"
},
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"url": "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ZON4TLXG7TG4A2XZG563JMVTGQW4SF3A/"
}
],
"title": "x86: shadow stack vs exceptions from emulation stubs",
"workarounds": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "While in principle it is possible to disable use of CET on capable\nsystems using the \"cet=no-shstk\" command line option, doing so disables\nan important security feature and may therefore not be advisable."
}
]
}
},
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"assignerShortName": "XEN",
"cveId": "CVE-2023-46841",
"datePublished": "2024-03-20T10:40:36.597Z",
"dateReserved": "2023-10-27T07:55:35.333Z",
"dateUpdated": "2025-11-04T18:18:57.552Z",
"state": "PUBLISHED"
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Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or seen somewhere by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability is confirmed from an analyst perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: This vulnerability was exploited and seen by the user reporting the sighting.
- Patched: This vulnerability was successfully patched by the user reporting the sighting.
- Not exploited: This vulnerability was not exploited or seen by the user reporting the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expresses doubt about the veracity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: This vulnerability was not successfully patched by the user reporting the sighting.
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