CVE-2026-23557
CVE-2026-23557 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Xen with a CVSS 3.x base score of 6.5. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-617.
Key facts
- Severity: Medium (CVSS 3.x base score 6.5)
- EPSS exploit prediction: 0% (5th percentile)
- Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
- EU (EUVD) id: EUVD-2026-30925
- Weakness: CWE-617
- Affected product: Xen
- Published:
- Last modified:
Description
Any guest can cause xenstored to crash by issuing a XS_RESET_WATCHES command within a transaction due to an assert() triggering. In case xenstored was built with NDEBUG #defined nothing bad will happen, as assert() is doing nothing in this case. Note that the default is not to define NDEBUG for xenstored builds even in release builds of Xen.
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-23557?
- Any guest can cause xenstored to crash by issuing a XS_RESET_WATCHES command within a transaction due to an assert() triggering. In case xenstored was built with NDEBUG #defined nothing bad will happen, as assert() is doing nothing in this case. Note that the default is not to define NDEBUG for xenstored builds even in release builds of Xen.
- How severe is CVE-2026-23557?
- CVE-2026-23557 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 6.5, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over local access with low attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
- Is CVE-2026-23557 being actively exploited?
- It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (5th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
- What products are affected by CVE-2026-23557?
- CVE-2026-23557 affects Xen. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
- How do I fix CVE-2026-23557?
- Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
- Does CVE-2026-23557 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?
- Yes. CVE-2026-23557 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2026-30925.
- When was CVE-2026-23557 published?
- CVE-2026-23557 was published on 2026-05-19 and last updated on 2026-06-17.
References
- https://xenbits.xenproject.org/xsa/advisory-484.html
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/04/28/11
- http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-484.html
Affected products (1)
- cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
More vulnerabilities in Xen
- CVE-2017-10921 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The grant-table feature in Xen through 4.8.x does not ensure sufficient type counts for a GNTMAP_device_map and…
- CVE-2017-10920 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The grant-table feature in Xen through 4.8.x mishandles a GNTMAP_device_map and GNTMAP_host_map mapping, when followed…
- CVE-2017-10918 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Xen through 4.8.x does not validate memory allocations during certain P2M operations, which allows guest OS users to…
- CVE-2017-10912 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Xen through 4.8.x mishandles page transfer, which allows guest OS users to obtain privileged host OS access, aka…
- CVE-2015-8104 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel through 4.2.6, and Xen 4.3.x through 4.6.x, allows guest OS users to cause a…
- CVE-2018-12892 — Critical (CVSS 9.9): An issue was discovered in Xen 4.7 through 4.10.x. libxl fails to pass the readonly flag to qemu when setting up a SCSI…
Other CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion) vulnerabilities
- CVE-2020-3615 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): Valid deauth/disassoc frames is dropped in case if RMF is enabled and some rouge peer keep on sending rogue…
- CVE-2019-9795 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): A vulnerability where type-confusion in the IonMonkey just-in-time (JIT) compiler could potentially be used by…
- CVE-2026-31739 — High (CVSS 8.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: tegra - Add missing CRYPTO_ALG_ASYNC The…
- CVE-2020-12417 — High (CVSS 8.8): Due to confusion about ValueTags on JavaScript Objects, an object may pass through the type barrier, resulting in…
- CVE-2020-6623 — High (CVSS 8.8): stb stb_truetype.h through 1.22 has an assertion failure in stbtt__cff_get_index.
- CVE-2020-6619 — High (CVSS 8.8): stb stb_truetype.h through 1.22 has an assertion failure in stbtt__buf_seek.