CVE-2023-46842
MEDIUMEPSS 95th pctlDescription
Unlike 32-bit PV guests, HVM guests may switch freely between 64-bit and other modes. This in particular means that they may set registers used to pass 32-bit-mode hypercall arguments to values outside of the range 32-bit code would be able to set them to. When processing of hypercalls takes a considerable amount of time, the hypervisor may choose to invoke a hypercall continuation. Doing so involves putting (perhaps updated) hypercall arguments in respective registers. For guests not running in 64-bit mode this further involves a certain amount of translation of the values. Unfortunately internal sanity checking of these translated values assumes high halves of registers to always be clear when invoking a hypercall. When this is found not to be the case, it triggers a consistency check in the hypervisor and causes a crash.
How to fix
TridentStack Control can deploy fixes like this automatically across your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet. See how it works
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Exploit Intelligence
High risk: more likely to be exploited than 95% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-843 (Type Confusion) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2011-0611 | High | 8.8 | 99% | KEV | Fix |
| CVE-2012-0507 | Critical | 9.8 | 98% | KEV + Ransom | - |
| CVE-2017-8291 | High | 7.8 | 97% | KEV | Fix |
| CVE-2021-21224 | High | 8.8 | 84% | KEV | Fix |
| CVE-2019-0752 | High | 7.5 | 82% | KEV + Ransom | - |
| CVE-2017-0037 | High | 8.1 | 80% | KEV | - |
Common questions
How do I fix CVE-2023-46842?
Upgrade xen on debian 12 to 4.17.5+23-ga4e5191dc0-1 or later.
Is CVE-2023-46842 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2023-46842 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 8.5% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 95% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2023-46842?
CVE-2023-46842 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.5, rated medium. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2023-46842 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for xen (Debian). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
Embed a live status badge for CVE-2023-46842
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-01-05.