HighFix available

xen — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741

An issue was discovered in xenoprof in Xen through 4.13.x, allowing guest OS users (with active profiling) to obtain sensitive information about other guests, cause a denial of service, or possibly gain privileges. For guests for which "active" profiling was enabled by the administrator, the xenoprof code uses the standard Xen shared ring structure. Unfortunately, this code did not treat the guest as a potential adversary: it trusts the guest not to modify buffer size information or modify head / tail pointers in unexpected ways. This can crash the host (DoS). Privilege escalation cannot be ruled out.

Products: xen
Affected versions: Not specified
Fixed versions: 4.11.4-1
CVEs: CVE-2020-11741
Confirmed fixed CVEs: Not specified
Updated in this feed: 1 Nov 2026, 12:29 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741

core-osv · Original source

Published 14 Apr 2020, 13:15 UTC

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.4-1

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.4-1

xen

Fixed versions: 4.11.4-1

Complete source record

{
  "id": "52099add1db1771bd6582650afd52536e930c6026e64c40fd0a05ca16c46b4ae",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741",
    "summary": "An issue was discovered in xenoprof in Xen through 4.13.x, allowing guest OS users (with active profiling) to obtain sensitive information about other guests, cause a denial of service, or possibly gain privileges. For guests for which \"active\" profiling was enabled by the administrator, the xenoprof code uses the standard Xen shared ring structure. Unfortunately, this code did not treat the guest as a potential adversary: it trusts the guest not to modify buffer size information or modify head / tail pointers in unexpected ways. This can crash the host (DoS). Privilege escalation cannot be ruled out.",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.4-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.4-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "xen",
          "evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "4.11.4-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      }
    ],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.4-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/xen?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:12"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.4-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/xen?arch=source&distro=trixie",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:13"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4.11.4-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "xen",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/xen?arch=source&distro=forky",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:14"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11741.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-26T12:00:21.468088782Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2020-11741"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-11741"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2020-11741",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 451085,
  "published_at": "2020-04-14T13:15:12.843+00:00"
}