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Fencer Intel
low 2.1

CVE-2015-7972 json

The (1) libxl_set_memory_target function in tools/libxl/libxl.c and (2) libxl__build_post function in tools/libxl/libxl_dom.c in Xen 3.4.x…

published 2015-10-30 11 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2015-7869

cvss
2.1
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 37%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The (1) libxl_set_memory_target function in tools/libxl/libxl.c and (2) libxl__build_post function in tools/libxl/libxl_dom.c in Xen 3.4.x through 4.6.x do not properly calculate the balloon size when using the populate-on-demand (PoD) system, which allows local HVM guest users to cause a denial of service (guest crash) via unspecified vectors related to "heavy memory pressure."

Patch / fix

  • xen Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 4.6.0-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2015-7972

  • xen Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 4.4.2-0ubuntu0.14.04.3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2015-7972

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • xen SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLED 11 SP4 +1 more 4.4.3_06-29.1
  • xen SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12, SLED 12 +1 more 4.4.3_06-22.15.1
  • xen SLES for SAP 11 SP3, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA, SLES 11 SP3 +2 more 4.2.5_18-21.1
  • xen SLES 11 SP2-LTSS 4.1.6_08-23.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2015:2338-1SUSE-SU-2015:2328-1SUSE-SU-2015:2326-1SUSE-SU-2015:2306-1

  • xen openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.7.0_12-1.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10196-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2015-7972 updated cvss 4.7

xen: populate-on-demand balloon size inaccuracy can crash guests on x86

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 xen
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 37% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-399 Resource Management Errors

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.