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CVE-2017-8904

28
FAUCET Score

CVE-2017-8904 is a critical vulnerability affecting Xen through version 4.8.x, specifically within its GNTTABOP_transfer operations. This flaw, also known as XSA-214, stems from improper handling of "contains segment descriptors" and could allow a malicious PV guest OS user to achieve arbitrary code execution on the host OS. With a CVSS v3 score of 8.8 (High), it presents a significant risk due to its low attack complexity and the potential for complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. While no public exploit intelligence (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB) or active exploitation has been observed, and community discussion is minimal, the inherent severity warrants attention.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
4.8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
4.8.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:xen:xen:4.8.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

8.8HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
2.0
Impact Score
6.0
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.42%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
34.5%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0042 is in the 75th percentile among its peer group of 17,061 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Vendor Patches (1)

redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: xen

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2017-8904Important

xen: grant transfer allows PV guest to elevate privileges (XSA-214)

May 2, 2017

References

blog.xenproject.org / 2017/05/02/updates-on-xsa-213-xsa-214-and-xsa-215
Vendor Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201705-11
xenbits.xen.org / xsa/advisory-214.html
MitigationPatchVendor Advisory
securityfocus.com / bid/98428
securitytracker.com / id/1038387