Skip to content
Heist/ feed
Back to feed
MediumFix available

xen — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.11.x. The logic in oxenstored for handling writes depended on the order of evaluation of expressions making up a tuple. As indicated in section 7.7.3 "Operations on data structures" of the OCaml manual, the order of evaluation of subexpressions is not specified. In practice, different implementations behave differently. Thus, oxenstored may not enforce the configured quota-maxentity. This allows a malicious or buggy guest to write as many xenstore entries as it wishes, causing unbounded memory usage in oxenstored. This can lead to a system-wide DoS.

Products
xen
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
4.10.1-r3, 4.11.1-r0, 4.8.5-r0, 4.9.3-r0
CVEs
CVE-2018-15470
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
31 Oct 2026, 21:58 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470

core-osv · Original source

Published 17 Aug 2018, 18:29 UTC

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.11.x. The logic in oxenstored for handling writes depended on the order of evaluation of expressions making up a tuple. As indicated in section 7.7.3 "Operations on data structures" of the OCaml manual, the order of evaluation of subexpressions is not specified. In practice, different implementations behave differently. Thus, oxenstored may not enforce the configured quota-maxentity. This allows a malicious or buggy guest to write as many xenstore entries as it wishes, causing unbounded memory usage in oxenstored. This can lead to a system-wide DoS.

osv:ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.8.5-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.9.3-r0

xen

Fixed versions: 4.10.1-r3

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.1-r0

Complete source record
{
  "id": "60e54a870d85ad393d9a7e21780dbb1d54f060e62e8e4152499dc07976f3474f",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470",
    "summary": "An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.11.x. The logic in oxenstored for handling writes depended on the order of evaluation of expressions making up a tuple. As indicated in section 7.7.3 \"Operations on data structures\" of the OCaml manual, the order of evaluation of subexpressions is not specified. In practice, different implementations behave differently. Thus, oxenstored may not enforce the configured quota-maxentity. This allows a malicious or buggy guest to write as many xenstore entries as it wishes, causing unbounded memory usage in oxenstored. This can lead to a system-wide DoS.",
    "evidence": "osv:ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/3/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/3/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/4/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/4/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/5/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/5/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/6/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/6/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/7/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/7/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/8/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/8/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/9/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/9/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/10/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/10/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/11/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/11/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/12/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/12/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/13/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/13/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/14/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/14/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/15/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.8.5-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/15/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/16/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.9.3-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/16/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/17/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.10.1-r3",
            "evidence": "/affected/17/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/18/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.1-r0",
            "evidence": "/affected/18/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      }
    ],
    "severity": "medium",
    "structured": {
      "id": "ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470",
      "aliases": [
        "ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.10"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.11"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.12"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.13"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.14"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.15"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.16"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.17"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.18"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.19"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.20"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.21"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.22"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.23"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.24"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.8.5-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.6"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.9.3-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.7"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.10.1-r3"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.8"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.1-r0"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:apk/alpine/xen?arch=source",
            "ecosystem": "Alpine:v3.9"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/alpine/ALPINE-CVE-2018-15470.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {}
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-23T17:17:55.220867942Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2018-15470"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-15470"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2018-15470",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 415060,
  "published_at": "2018-08-17T18:29:00.977+00:00"
}