# CVE-2013-1920: Use after free in n/a

> Local guest kernels can exploit a use-after-free in Xen to inject events and gain privileges when XSM is enabled under memory pressure.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.4 (`AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Apr 2013
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-xgcf-925j-mrg9

## What is CVE-2013-1920?

CVE-2013-1920 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Xen Xen, published on 12 Apr 2013. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Xen 4.2.x, 4.1.x, and earlier, when the hypervisor is running "under memory pressure" and the Xen Security Module (XSM) is enabled, uses the wrong ordering of operations when extending the per-domain event channel tracking table, which causes a use-after-free and allows local guest kernels to inject arbitrary events and gain privileges via unspecified vectors.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2013-1920?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Xen Xen.

## How do I fix CVE-2013-1920?

No fix has been published for CVE-2013-1920 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2013-1920 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2013-1920 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Xen Xen

- [CVE-2017-10912](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10912/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2017-10918](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10918/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2017-10920](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10920/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2017-10921](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-10921/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2025-27466](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-27466/): Mutiple vulnerabilities in the Viridian interface (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2013-1920 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2013-1920 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Xen Xen, published on 12 Apr 2013. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2013-1920 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Xen Xen. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-1920/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-1920/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2013-1920
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2013-1920
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2013-1920

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-1920/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.