CVE-2016-3157

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2016-04-12 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-264

Description

The __switch_to function in arch/x86/kernel/process_64.c in the Linux kernel does not properly context-switch IOPL on 64-bit PV Xen guests, which allows local guest OS users to gain privileges, cause a denial of service (guest OS crash), or obtain sensitive information by leveraging I/O port access.

Affected products

Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 12.04
xen: 4.0.0

References

http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3607
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinapr2016-2952096.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/84594
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1035308
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2968-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2968-2
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2969-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2970-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2971-1
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2971-2
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2971-3
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2996-1

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