CVE-2026-23561

Pool-admin escalation via unrestricted storage domain assignment

Published Jul 9, 2026 · Updated Jul 9, 2026

Privilege escalation in Xen Project XAPI all versions allows local users with vm-admin access to gain pool-admin privileges. The VM.other_config setter accepts storage_driver_domain from vm-admin sessions, letting a controlled VM impersonate the storage domain for a host PBD; shutting it down leaves the attached PBD falsely marked unplugged. Exposure requires pool RBAC and a limited administrator account, and the resulting storage-state corruption permits escalation to the fully privileged pool-admin role.

CVSS severity9.4
Critical
EPSS probability0.17%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
Coverage for this vulnerability

See if you're affected

Explore vulnerability checks for your environment with Hinoki.

Book a demo

Summary

What happened

Privilege escalation in Xen Project XAPI all versions allows local users with vm-admin access to gain pool-admin privileges. The VM.other_config setter accepts storage_driver_domain from vm-admin sessions, letting a controlled VM impersonate the storage domain for a host PBD; shutting it down leaves the attached PBD falsely marked unplugged. Exposure requires pool RBAC and a limited administrator account, and the resulting storage-state corruption permits escalation to the fully privileged pool-admin role.

The record

CVE
CVE-2026-23561
Published
Jul 9, 2026
Updated
Jul 9, 2026
Vendor
Xen Project
Product
XAPI
Classifications
CWE-250, CAPEC-233, T1068
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jul 9, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Jul 9, 2026Record 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?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=all

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Xen Project · XAPIversion=all

Published CVSS scores

9.4Xen ProjectCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

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.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-250Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
CAPEC-233Privilege Escalation
T1068Exploitation for Privilege Escalation

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