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Home CVE Database CVE-2021-28689

CVE-2021-28689

Description

x86: Speculative vulnerabilities with bare (non-shim) 32-bit PV guests 32-bit x86 PV guest kernels run in ring 1. At the time when Xen was developed, this area of the i386 architecture was rarely used, which is why Xen was able to use it to implement paravirtualisation, Xen\'s novel approach to virtualization. In AMD64, Xen had to use a different implementation approach, so Xen does not use ring 1 to support 64-bit guests. With the focus now being on 64-bit systems, and the availability of explicit hardware support for virtualization, fixing speculation issues in ring 1 is not a priority for processor companies. Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation (IBRS) is an architectural x86 extension put together to combat speculative execution sidechannel attacks, including Spectre v2. It was retrofitted in microcode to existing CPUs. For more details on Spectre v2, see: http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-254.html However, IBRS does not architecturally protect ring 0 from predictions learnt in ring 1. For more details, see: https://software.intel.com/security-software-guidance/deep-dives/deep-dive-indirect-branch-restricted-speculation Similar situations may exist with other mitigations for other kinds of speculative execution attacks. The situation is quite likely to be similar for speculative execution attacks which have yet to be discovered, disclosed, or mitigated.

Priority: LOW
CVSS v3: 5.5
Component: xen
Publish Date: Jun 11, 2021
Related ID: --
CVSS v2: MEDIUM
Modified Date: Jun 11, 2021

Find out more about CVE-2021-28689 from the MITRE-CVE dictionary and NIST NVD


Products Affected

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Product Name Status Defect Fixed Downloads
Linux
Wind River Linux LTS 17 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux 8 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux 9 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux 7 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux LTS 21 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux LTS 22 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux LTS 18 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux LTS 19 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux CD release Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux 6 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Wind River Linux LTS 23 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
VxWorks
VxWorks 7 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
VxWorks 6.9 Not Vulnerable -- -- --
Helix Virtualization Platform Cert Edition
Helix Virtualization Platform Cert Edition Not Vulnerable -- -- --

Related Products

Product Name Status Defect Fixed Downloads

Notes
Requires LTSS - customers must have active LTSS (Long Term Security Shield) Support to receive up-to-date information about vulnerabilities that may affect legacy software. Please contact your Wind River account team or see https://docs.windriver.com/bundle/Support_and_Maintenance_Supplemental_Terms_and_Conditions and https://support2.windriver.com/index.php?page=plc for more information.
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