Unspecified vulnerability in the VMware Descheduled Time Accounting driver in VMware Workstation 6.5.1 and earlier, VMware Player 2.5.1 and earlier, VMware ACE 2.5.1 and earlier, VMware Server 1.x before 1.0.9 build 156507 and 2.x before 2.0.1 build 156745, VMware Fusion 2.x before 2.0.2 build 147997, VMware ESXi 3.5, and VMware ESX 3.0.2, 3.0.3, and 3.5, when the Descheduled Time Accounting Service is not running, allows guest OS users on Windows to cause a denial of service via unknown vectors.

The remote ESX / ESXi host is missing a security-related patch. It is, therefore, affected by an unspecified flaw in the Descheduled Time Accounting driver that allows a guest Windows user to cause a denial of service. Note that this issue can be exploited only if the feature is installed and the affected service is not running in the virtual machine.

a. VMware Descheduled Time Accounting driver vulnerability may cause a    denial of service in Windows based virtual machines.

   The VMware Descheduled Time Accounting Service is an optional,    experimental service that provides improved guest operating system    accounting.

   This patch fixes a denial of service vulnerability that could be    triggered in a virtual machine by an unprivileged, locally    logged-on user in the virtual machine.

   Virtual machines are affected under the following conditions :

   - The virtual machine is running a Windows operating system.

   - The VMware Descheduled Time Accounting driver is installed      in the virtual machine. Note that this is an optional (non-      default) part of the VMware Tools installation.

   - The VMware Descheduled Time Accounting Service is not running      in the virtual machine

   The VMware Descheduled Time Accounting Service is no longer provided    in newer versions of VMware Tools, starting with the versions    released in Fusion 2.0.2 and ESX 4.0.

   However, virtual machines migrated from vulnerable releases will    still be vulnerable if the three conditions listed above are met,    until their tools are upgraded.

   Steps needed to remediate this vulnerability :

   Guest systems on VMware Workstation, Player, ACE, Server, Fusion
    - Install the new version of Workstation, Player, ACE, Server,       Fusion (see below for version information)
    - Upgrade tools in the virtual machine (virtual machine users       will be prompted to upgrade).

   Guest systems on ESX 3.5, ESXi 3.5, ESX 3.0.2, ESX 3.0.3
    - Install the relevant patches (see below for patch identifiers)
    - Manually upgrade tools in the virtual machine (virtual machine       users will not be prompted to upgrade).  Note the VI Client will       not show the VMware tools is out of date in the summary tab.
      Please see http://tinyurl.com/27mpjo page 80 for details.

   Guests systems on ESX 4.0 and ESXi 4.0 that have been migrated from    ESX 3.5, ESXi 3.5, and ESX 3.0.x
    - Install/upgrade the new tools in the virtual machine (virtual       machine users will be prompted to upgrade).

   If the Descheduled Time Accounting driver was installed, the tools    upgrade will result in an updated driver for Workstation, Player,    ACE, Server, ESX 3.0.2, ESX 3.0.3, ESX 3.5, ESXi 3.5. For Fusion,    ESX 4.0, and ESXi 4.0 the tools upgrade will result in the removal    of the driver.

   VMware would like to thank Nikita Tarakanov for reporting this    issue to us.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-1805 to this issue.

b. Updated libpng package for the ESX 2.5.5 Service Console

   The libpng packages contain a library of functions for creating and    manipulating PNG (Portable Network Graphics) image format files.

   A flaw was discovered in libpng that could result in libpng trying    to free() random memory if certain, unlikely error conditions    occurred. If a carefully-crafted PNG file was loaded by an    application linked against libpng, it could cause the application    to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the    privileges of the user running the application.

   A flaw was discovered in the way libpng handled PNG images    containing 'unknown' chunks. If an application linked against libpng    attempted to process a malformed, unknown chunk in a malicious PNG    image, it could cause the application to crash.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the names CVE-2009-0040 and CVE-2008-1382 to these    issues.

   The VMware version number of libpng after applying the update is    libpng-1.0.14-12.i386.rpm.

VMware products installed on the remote host are reportedly affected by multiple vulnerabilities :

  - A vulnerability in the guest virtual device driver could     allow an attacker to use the guest operating system to     crash the host operating system. (CVE-2008-3761)

  - A denial of service vulnerability affects an unspecified     IOCTL contained in the 'hcmon.sys' driver. An attacker     can exploit this in order to deny service on a Windows-     based host. (CVE-2009-1146, CVE-2008-3761)

  - A privilege escalation vulnerability affects the     'vmci.sys' driver on Windows-based machines. An attacker     can exploit this in order to gain escalated privileges     on either the host or the guest. (CVE-2009-1147)

  - The 'VNnc' codec is affected by two heap-based buffer     overflow vulnerabilities. An attacker can exploit these     to execute arbitrary code on VMware hosted products by     tricking a user into opening a malicious file.
    (CVE-2009-0909, CVE-2009-0910)

  - A vulnerability in ACE shared folder may allow attackers     to enable previously disabled shared ACE folders. This     only affects VMware ACE. (CVE-2009-0908)

  - A remote denial of service vulnerability affects Windows     hosts. An attacker can exploit this to crash the     affected host. (CVE-2009-0177)

  - A vulnerability in the virtual machine display function     may allow a guest operating system to run code on the     host. (CVE-2009-1244)

  - A vulnerability in VMware Descheduled Time Accounting     Service could be exploited to trigger a denial of     service condition in Windows-based virtual machines. It     should be noted that, this feature is optional, and     the vulnerability can be exploited only if the feature     is installed, and the affected service is not running in     the virtual machine. (CVE-2009-1805)

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
89113	VMware ESX / ESXi Descheduled Time Accounting DoS (VMSA-2009-0007) (remote check)	Nessus	Misc.	medium
40392	VMSA-2009-0007 : VMware Hosted products and ESX and ESXi patches resolve security issues	Nessus	VMware ESX Local Security Checks	high
36117	VMware Products Multiple Vulnerabilities (VMSA-2009-0005/VMSA-2009-0007)	Nessus	Windows	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2009-1805

medium

Tenable Plugins

medium

high

high