Bug 2550652 (CVE-2026-79611)

Summary: CVE-2026-79611 xen: xen: Denial of Service of guest virtual machines via VM entry failure
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in Xen. A user inside a guest virtual machine can cause a Denial of Service (DoS) of that guest by enabling a specific combination of processor debugging and branch tracing states. Due to improper state handling during hardware virtualization transitions, the hypervisor triggers a virtual machine entry failure that unexpectedly crashes the affected guest system.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On: 2559194    
Bug Blocks:    

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-13 15:53:15 UTC
For XSA-308 logic was introduced, as VMX VMEntry checks do not like the
exact combination of state which occurs when #DB in intercepted, Single
Stepping is active, and blocked by STI/MovSS is active, despite this being
a legitimate state to be in.  The resulting VMEntry failure is fatal to
the guest.

Sadly there is another special sub-case of the above, with branch tracing
enabled.  In that case the prior adjustment would still cause a VMentry
failure, as before fatal to the guest.