CVE-2019-19577

What it is

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.12.x allowing x86 AMD HVM guest OS users to cause a denial of service or possibly gain privileges by triggering data-structure access during pagetable-height updates. When running on AMD systems with an IOMMU, Xen attempted to dynamically adapt the number of levels of pagetables (the pagetable height) in the IOMMU according to the guest's address space size. The code to select and update the height had several bugs. Notably, the update was done without taking a lock which is necessary for safe operation. A malicious guest administrator can cause Xen to access data structures while they are being modified, causing Xen to crash. Privilege escalation is thought to be very difficult but cannot be ruled out. Additionally, there is a potential memory leak of 4kb per guest boot, under memory pressure. Only Xen on AMD CPUs is vulnerable. Xen running on Intel CPUs is not vulnerable. ARM systems are not vulnerable. Only systems where guests are given direct access to physical devices are vulnerable. Systems which do not use PCI pass-through are not vulnerable. Only HVM guests can exploit the vulnerability. PV and PVH guests cannot. All versions of Xen with IOMMU support are vulnerable.

At a glance

Exploitability

Can be exploited with physical access with an admin-level account. High risk of data exposure, data tampering, service disruption.

Exploit odds

0.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS).

Fix

A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

1. 2019-12-11 18:16 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2. 2026-06-17 02:26 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

• Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
• Exploit odds: 0.5% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
• Severity: 7.2 HIGH (CVSS).
• Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published

2019-12-11 18:16 UTC

Last modified

2026-06-17 02:26 UTC

Exploit probability

0.5% · EPSS, next 30 days

Weakness

CWE-401

Record status

Modified

Affected

• Xen ≤ 4.12.1
• Fedoraproject Fedora 31

Attack profile CVSS 3.1 · 7.2

Attack vector

Physical

Complexity

Low

Privileges needed

High

User interaction

None

Scope

Changed

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Is it in your code?

Hand this to your coding agent. It searches your project for the affected products and checks versions. Nothing leaves your machine.

Read https://cve-list.com/agent/cve/CVE-2019-19577.md and follow it. Check whether this project is affected by CVE-2019-19577. Read only. Don't change anything and don't upload my code. Tell me yes, no or not sure, with the file as proof.

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