diff --git a/xen/arch/x86/cpu-policy.c b/xen/arch/x86/cpu-policy.c
index 10079c26ae..a4327abd13 100644
--- a/xen/arch/x86/cpu-policy.c
+++ b/xen/arch/x86/cpu-policy.c
@@ -537,6 +537,14 @@ static void __init calculate_pv_max_policy(void)
     for ( i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(fs); ++i )
         fs[i] &= pv_max_featuremask[i];
 
+    /*
+     * Xen at the time of writing (Feb 2024, 4.19 dev cycle) used to leak the
+     * host x2APIC capability into PV guests, but never supported the guest
+     * trying to turn x2APIC mode on.  Tolerate an incoming VM which saw the
+     * x2APIC CPUID bit and is alive enough to migrate.
+     */
+    __set_bit(X86_FEATURE_X2APIC, fs);
+
     /*
      * If Xen isn't virtualising MSR_SPEC_CTRL for PV guests (functional
      * availability, or admin choice), hide the feature.
@@ -830,11 +838,10 @@ void recalculate_cpuid_policy(struct domain *d)
     }
 
     /*
-     * Allow the toolstack to set HTT, X2APIC and CMP_LEGACY.  These bits
+     * Allow the toolstack to set HTT and CMP_LEGACY.  These bits
      * affect how to interpret topology information in other cpuid leaves.
      */
     __set_bit(X86_FEATURE_HTT, max_fs);
-    __set_bit(X86_FEATURE_X2APIC, max_fs);
     __set_bit(X86_FEATURE_CMP_LEGACY, max_fs);
 
     /*
diff --git a/xen/include/public/arch-x86/cpufeatureset.h b/xen/include/public/arch-x86/cpufeatureset.h
index be5c1b748e..b230d3a690 100644
--- a/xen/include/public/arch-x86/cpufeatureset.h
+++ b/xen/include/public/arch-x86/cpufeatureset.h
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ XEN_CPUFEATURE(PCID,          1*32+17) /*H  Process Context ID */
 XEN_CPUFEATURE(DCA,           1*32+18) /*   Direct Cache Access */
 XEN_CPUFEATURE(SSE4_1,        1*32+19) /*A  Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 */
 XEN_CPUFEATURE(SSE4_2,        1*32+20) /*A  Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2 */
-XEN_CPUFEATURE(X2APIC,        1*32+21) /*!A Extended xAPIC */
+XEN_CPUFEATURE(X2APIC,        1*32+21) /*!S Extended xAPIC */
 XEN_CPUFEATURE(MOVBE,         1*32+22) /*A  movbe instruction */
 XEN_CPUFEATURE(POPCNT,        1*32+23) /*A  POPCNT instruction */
 XEN_CPUFEATURE(TSC_DEADLINE,  1*32+24) /*S  TSC Deadline Timer */