CVE-2014-2915
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedXen 4.4.x, when running on ARM systems, does not properly restrict access to hardware features, which allows local guest users to cause a denial of service (host or guest crash) via unspecified vectors, related to (1) cache control, (2) coprocessors, (3) debug registers, and (4) other unspecified registers.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceXen 4.4.x hypervisor on ARM systems fails to properly restrict guest VM access to hardware features including cache control, coprocessors, debug registers, and other hardware registers. This allows local guest users to manipulate these features and cause denial of service through host or guest crashes.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 4.4.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Adjacent
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- Single
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Complete
AV:A/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Xen hypervisor versionRun 'xl info' or 'xm info' to display Xen hypervisor information, or check the Xen package version with your system's package manager (e.g., 'dpkg -l | grep xen' or 'rpm -qa | grep xen')Affected if The displayed Xen version is exactly 4.4.0
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Confirm system architecture is ARMRun 'uname -m' or 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' to check the underlying hardware architectureAffected if The system is running on ARM-based hardware (arm, aarch64, or armv7)
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Verify Xen is running as the hypervisorRun 'xl list' or 'xm list' to list running Xen domains, or check for Xen kernel with 'xl dmesg'Affected if Xen hypervisor is active and managing virtual machines
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Check if guest VMs have access to hardware featuresExamine guest configuration files in /etc/xen/ (or /var/lib/xen/) for 'cpuid' or 'cpuflags' settings, or inspect xl.cfg/xm.conf for hardware passthrough settings like 'cpuid', 'cpus', or 'passthrough' optionsAffected if Guest configurations explicitly grant access to coprocessors, debug registers, or cache control via passthrough or cpuid settings
A system is affected if it runs Xen version 4.4.0 on ARM hardware and allows guest VMs access to hardware features such as cache control, coprocessors, or debug registers.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply Xen security patches for CVE-2014-2915 or upgrade to a patched version of Xen 4.4.x. If no patch is available, consider restricting local guest privileges or deploying alternative virtualization solutions on affected ARM systems.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2014-2915 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-2915 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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