CVE-2018-19961

An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.11.x on AMD x86 platforms, possibly allowing guest OS users to gain host OS privileges because TLB flushes do not always occur after IOMMU mapping changes.

Published: 2018-12-08 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-19961 is rated Moderate Risk (45.3/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.18%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-19961

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 0.10% 0.18% +0.08%
2 2025-11-18 0.19% 0.10% -0.09%
3 2025-08-20 — 0.19% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-19961

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.1 6.0 [email protected]
6.9 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.4 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-19961

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-19961

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2018-19961: 1 source package rows (xen); 121 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 10, open 111. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-19961
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-19961 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (xen), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-19961
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-19961
suse high CVE-2018-19961 severity important: SUSE including 365 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 478 product×package rows across 67 product lines (SLES for SAP Applications 11 SP3, SUSE CaaS Platform 3.0, … (67 product lines)): Fixed 294, Known Affected 157, Known Not Affected 27. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-19961/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-19961 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (xen), 19 status rows across 19 suites (bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 10, ignored 6, DNE 1, needed 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-19961

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-19961

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
xen xen <= 4.11.1 cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
citrix xenserver 7.0 cpe:2.3:a:citrix:xenserver:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
citrix xenserver 7.1 cpe:2.3:a:citrix:xenserver:7.1:cu1:*:*:ltsr:*:*:*
citrix xenserver 7.5 cpe:2.3:a:citrix:xenserver:7.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
citrix xenserver 7.6 cpe:2.3:a:citrix:xenserver:7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-19961

cvelogic Threat Intelligence