arch/x86/hvm/vmx/vmcs.c in the virtual-machine control structure (VMCS) implementation in the Linux kernel 2.6.18 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5, when an Intel platform without Extended Page Tables (EPT) functionality is used, accesses VMCS fields without verifying hardware support for these fields, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (host OS crash) by requesting a VMCS dump for a fully virtualized Xen guest.

The remote VMware ESX / ESXi host is missing a security-related patch.
It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities in several third-party components and libraries :

  - Kernel
  - krb5
  - glibc
  - mtp2sas
  - mptsas
  - mptspi

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2010-0723 advisory.

    - [misc] make compat_alloc_user_space() incorporate the access_ok()       (Don Howard) [634463 634464] {CVE-2010-3081}
    - [fs] xfs: fix missing untrusted inode lookup tag (Dave Chinner)       [624366 607032] {CVE-2010-2943}
    - [net] sched: fix some kernel memory leaks (Jiri Pirko) [624904 624638]       {CVE-2010-2942}
    - [usb] fix usbfs information leak (Eugene Teo) [566628 566629] {CVE-2010-1083}
    - [fs] xfs: rename XFS_IGET_BULKSTAT to XFS_IGET_UNTRUSTED (Dave Chinner)       [624366 607032] {CVE-2010-2943}
    - [fs] xfs: validate untrusted inode numbers during lookup (Dave Chinner)       [624366 607032] {CVE-2010-2943}
    - [fs] xfs: always use iget in bulkstat (Dave Chinner) [624366 607032]       {CVE-2010-2943}
    - [xen] fix guest crash on non-EPT machine may crash host (Paolo Bonzini)       [621429 621430] {CVE-2010-2938}
    - [fs] ext4: consolidate in_range definitions (Eric Sandeen) [624331 624332]       {CVE-2010-3015}
    - [mm] accept an abutting stack segment (Jiri Pirko) [607857 607858]       {CVE-2010-2240}
    - [mm] pass correct mm when growing stack (Jiri Pirko) [607857 607858]       {CVE-2010-2240}
    - [mm] fix up some user-visible effects of stack guard page (Jiri Pirko)       [607857 607858] {CVE-2010-2240}
    - [mm] fix page table unmap for stack guard page properly (Jiri Pirko)       [607857 607858] {CVE-2010-2240}
    - [mm] fix missing unmap for stack guard page failure case (Jiri Pirko)       [607857 607858] {CVE-2010-2240}

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

This update fixes the following security issues :

* A buffer overflow flaw was found in the ecryptfs_uid_hash() function in the Linux kernel eCryptfs implementation. On systems that have the eCryptfs netlink transport (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 does) or where the '/dev/ecryptfs' file has world-writable permissions (which it does not, by default, on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5), a local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service or possibly escalate their privileges. (CVE-2010-2492, Important)

* A miscalculation of the size of the free space of the initial directory entry in a directory leaf block was found in the Linux kernel Global File System 2 (GFS2) implementation. A local, unprivileged user with write access to a GFS2-mounted file system could perform a rename operation on that file system to trigger a NULL pointer dereference, possibly resulting in a denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2010-2798, Important)

* A flaw was found in the Xen hypervisor implementation when running a system that has an Intel CPU without Extended Page Tables (EPT) support. While attempting to dump information about a crashing fully-virtualized guest, the flaw could cause the hypervisor to crash the host as well. A user with permissions to configure a fully-virtualized guest system could use this flaw to crash the host.
(CVE-2010-2938, Moderate)

* Information leak flaws were found in the Linux kernel's Traffic Control Unit implementation. A local attacker could use these flaws to cause the kernel to leak kernel memory to user-space, possibly leading to the disclosure of sensitive information. (CVE-2010-2942, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's XFS file system implementation. The file handle lookup could return an invalid inode as valid. If an XFS file system was mounted via NFS (Network File System), a local attacker could access stale data or overwrite existing data that reused the inodes. (CVE-2010-2943, Moderate)

* An integer overflow flaw was found in the extent range checking code in the Linux kernel's ext4 file system implementation. A local, unprivileged user with write access to an ext4-mounted file system could trigger this flaw by writing to a file at a very large file offset, resulting in a local denial of service. (CVE-2010-3015, Moderate)

* An information leak flaw was found in the Linux kernel's USB implementation. Certain USB errors could result in an uninitialized kernel buffer being sent to user-space. An attacker with physical access to a target system could use this flaw to cause an information leak. (CVE-2010-1083, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Andre Osterhues for reporting CVE-2010-2492; Grant Diffey of CenITex for reporting CVE-2010-2798;
Toshiyuki Okajima for reporting CVE-2010-3015; and Marcus Meissner for reporting CVE-2010-1083.

This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the References.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

a. ESX third-party update for Service Console kernel

   This update takes the console OS kernel package to    kernel-2.6.18-238.9.1 which resolves multiple security issues.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the names CVE-2010-1083, CVE-2010-2492, CVE-2010-2798,    CVE-2010-2938, CVE-2010-2942, CVE-2010-2943, CVE-2010-3015,    CVE-2010-3066, CVE-2010-3067, CVE-2010-3078, CVE-2010-3086,    CVE-2010-3296, CVE-2010-3432, CVE-2010-3442, CVE-2010-3477,    CVE-2010-3699, CVE-2010-3858, CVE-2010-3859, CVE-2010-3865,    CVE-2010-3876, CVE-2010-3877, CVE-2010-3880, CVE-2010-3904,    CVE-2010-4072, CVE-2010-4073, CVE-2010-4075, CVE-2010-4080,    CVE-2010-4081, CVE-2010-4083, CVE-2010-4157, CVE-2010-4158,    CVE-2010-4161, CVE-2010-4238, CVE-2010-4242, CVE-2010-4243,    CVE-2010-4247, CVE-2010-4248, CVE-2010-4249, CVE-2010-4251,    CVE-2010-4255, CVE-2010-4263, CVE-2010-4343, CVE-2010-4346,    CVE-2010-4526, CVE-2010-4655, CVE-2011-0521, CVE-2011-0710,    CVE-2011-1010, CVE-2011-1090 and CVE-2011-1478 to these issues.

b. ESX third-party update for Service Console krb5 RPMs

   This patch updates the krb5-libs and krb5-workstation RPMs of the    console OS to version 1.6.1-55.el5_6.1, which resolves multiple    security issues.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the names CVE-2010-1323, CVE-2011-0281, and CVE-2011-0282    to these issues.

c. ESXi and ESX update to third-party component glibc

   The glibc third-party library is updated to resolve multiple    security issues.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the names CVE-2010-0296, CVE-2011-0536, CVE-2011-1071,    CVE-2011-1095, CVE-2011-1658, and CVE-2011-1659 to these issues.

d. ESX update to third-party drivers mptsas, mpt2sas, and mptspi

   The mptsas, mpt2sas, and mptspi drivers are updated which addresses    multiple security issues in the mpt2sas driver.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the names CVE-2011-1494 and CVE-2011-1495 to these issues.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2010:0723 advisory.

    The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux     operating system.

    This update fixes the following security issues:

    * A buffer overflow flaw was found in the ecryptfs_uid_hash() function in     the Linux kernel eCryptfs implementation. On systems that have the eCryptfs     netlink transport (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 does) or where the     /dev/ecryptfs file has world writable permissions (which it does not, by     default, on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5), a local, unprivileged user could     use this flaw to cause a denial of service or possibly escalate their     privileges. (CVE-2010-2492, Important)

    * A miscalculation of the size of the free space of the initial directory     entry in a directory leaf block was found in the Linux kernel Global File     System 2 (GFS2) implementation. A local, unprivileged user with write     access to a GFS2-mounted file system could perform a rename operation on     that file system to trigger a NULL pointer dereference, possibly resulting     in a denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2010-2798, Important)

    * A flaw was found in the Xen hypervisor implementation when running a     system that has an Intel CPU without Extended Page Tables (EPT) support.
    While attempting to dump information about a crashing fully-virtualized     guest, the flaw could cause the hypervisor to crash the host as well. A     user with permissions to configure a fully-virtualized guest system could     use this flaw to crash the host. (CVE-2010-2938, Moderate)

    * Information leak flaws were found in the Linux kernel's Traffic Control     Unit implementation. A local attacker could use these flaws to cause the     kernel to leak kernel memory to user-space, possibly leading to the     disclosure of sensitive information. (CVE-2010-2942, Moderate)

    * A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's XFS file system implementation.
    The file handle lookup could return an invalid inode as valid. If an XFS     file system was mounted via NFS (Network File System), a local attacker     could access stale data or overwrite existing data that reused the inodes.
    (CVE-2010-2943, Moderate)

    * An integer overflow flaw was found in the extent range checking code in     the Linux kernel's ext4 file system implementation. A local, unprivileged     user with write access to an ext4-mounted file system could trigger this     flaw by writing to a file at a very large file offset, resulting in a local     denial of service. (CVE-2010-3015, Moderate)

    * An information leak flaw was found in the Linux kernel's USB     implementation. Certain USB errors could result in an uninitialized kernel     buffer being sent to user-space. An attacker with physical access to a     target system could use this flaw to cause an information leak.
    (CVE-2010-1083, Low)

    Red Hat would like to thank Andre Osterhues for reporting CVE-2010-2492;
    Grant Diffey of CenITex for reporting CVE-2010-2798; Toshiyuki Okajima for     reporting CVE-2010-3015; and Marcus Meissner for reporting CVE-2010-1083.

    This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will     be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the     References.

    Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported     patches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this     update to take effect.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
89680	VMware ESX / ESXi Third-Party Libraries Multiple Vulnerabilities (VMSA-2011-0012) (remote check)	Nessus	Misc.	high
68106	Oracle Linux 5 : kernel (ELSA-2010-0723)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
67080	CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2010:0723)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
56508	VMSA-2011-0012 : VMware ESXi and ESX updates to third-party libraries and ESX Service Console	Nessus	VMware ESX Local Security Checks	high
49746	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2010:0723)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2010-2938

medium

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high

high