Host crash via shadow-stack recovery mismatch
Published Mar 20, 2024 · Updated Nov 4, 2025
Denial of service in Xen 4.14 and later allows guest OS users to crash an entire x86 host through emulation-stub exceptions. Exception recovery removes the emulation-stub call frame from the traditional stack but leaves its shadow-stack counterpart in place, causing a control-flow mismatch. Exploitation requires an HVM or PVH guest on an x86 host with CET shadow stacks enabled; PV guests, Arm hosts, and x86 hosts without CET-SS are unaffected.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in Xen 4.14 and later allows guest OS users to crash an entire x86 host through emulation-stub exceptions. Exception recovery removes the emulation-stub call frame from the traditional stack but leaves its shadow-stack counterpart in place, causing a control-flow mismatch. Exploitation requires an HVM or PVH guest on an x86 host with CET shadow stacks enabled; PV guests, Arm hosts, and x86 hosts without CET-SS are unaffected.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-46841
- Published
- Mar 20, 2024
- Updated
- Nov 4, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 20, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 4, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
Published CVSS scores
No CVSS assessment is available in this record.
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo