Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2020-28368

Xen through 4.14.x allows guest OS administrators to obtain sensitive information (such as AES keys from outside the guest) via a side-channel attack on a power/energy monitoring interface, aka a "Platypus" attack. NOTE: there is only one logically independent fix: to change the access control for each such interface in Xen.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 4.4, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), for affected systems. Impacting 3 products from xen, from fedoraproject, from debian organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.

Published

2020-11-10T19:15:11.473

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:22:40.440

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 4.4 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Access Vector: LOCAL
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: NONE

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-862

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Operating System	xen	xen	≤ 4.14.0	Yes
Operating System	fedoraproject	fedora	32	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	10.0	Yes

References

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/11/26/1 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-351.html Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/5J66QUUHXH2RR4CNCKQRGVXVSOUFRPDA/ ([email protected])
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/XV23EZIMNLJN4YXRRXLQV2ALW6ZEALXV/ ([email protected])
https://platypusattack.com Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4804 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-platypus-attack-can-steal-data-from-intel-cpus/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-351.html Patch, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/11/26/1 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-351.html Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/5J66QUUHXH2RR4CNCKQRGVXVSOUFRPDA/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/XV23EZIMNLJN4YXRRXLQV2ALW6ZEALXV/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://platypusattack.com Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4804 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-platypus-attack-can-steal-data-from-intel-cpus/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-351.html Patch, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For xen's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.