Detections
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VMSA-2008-0009 : Updates to VMware Workstation, VMware Player, VMware ACE, VMware Fusion, VMware Server, VMware VIX API, VMware ESX, VMware ESXi resolve critical security issues
high Nessus Plugin ID 40378
Synopsis
The remote VMware ESXi / ESX host is missing one or more security-related patches.Description
a. VMware Tools Local Privilege Escalation on Windows-based guest OSThe VMware Tools Package provides support required for shared folders (HGFS) and other features.
An input validation error is present in the Windows-based VMware HGFS.sys driver. Exploitation of this flaw might result in arbitrary code execution on the guest system by an unprivileged guest user. It doesn't matter on what host the Windows guest OS is running, as this is a guest driver vulnerability and not a vulnerability on the host.
The HGFS.sys driver is present in the guest operating system if the VMware Tools package is loaded. Even if the host has HGFS disabled and has no shared folders, Windows-based guests may be affected. This is regardless if a host supports HGFS.
This issue could be mitigated by removing the VMware Tools package from Windows based guests. However this is not recommended as it would impact usability of the product.
NOTE: Installing the new hosted release or ESX patches will not remediate the issue. The VMware Tools packages will need to be updated on each Windows-based guest followed by a reboot of the guest system.
VMware would like to thank iDefense and Stephen Fewer of Harmony Security for reporting this issue to us.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2007-5671 to this issue.
b. Privilege escalation on ESX or Linux based hosted operating systems
This update fixes a security issue related to local exploitation of an untrusted library path vulnerability in vmware-authd. In order to exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have local access and the ability to execute the set-uid vmware-authd binary on an affected system. Exploitation of this flaw might result in arbitrary code execution on the Linux host system by an unprivileged user.
VMware would like to thank iDefense for reporting this issue to us.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-0967 to this issue.
c. Openwsman Invalid Content-Length Vulnerability
Openwsman is a system management platform that implements the Web Services Management protocol (WS-Management). It is installed and running by default. It is used in the VMware Management Service Console and in ESXi.
The openwsman management service on ESX 3.5 and ESXi 3.5 is vulnerable to a privilege escalation vulnerability, which may allow users with non-privileged ESX or Virtual Center accounts to gain root privileges.
To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need a local ESX account or a VirtualCenter account with the Host.Cim.CimInteraction permission.
Systems with no local ESX accounts and no VirtualCenter accounts with the Host.Cim.CimInteraction permission are not vulnerable.
This vulnerability cannot be exploited by users without valid login credentials.
Discovery: Alexander Sotirov, VMware Security Research
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-2097 to this issue.
d. VMware VIX Application Programming Interface (API) Memory Overflow Vulnerabilities
The VIX API (also known as 'Vix') is an API that lets users write scripts and programs to manipulate virtual machines.
Multiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities are present in the VIX API.
Exploitation of these vulnerabilities might result in a privilege escalation on the host system. This exploit scenario is relevant for all affected products. On VC, ESX30x, and ESX35, users need to have the VM Interaction Privilege in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Exploitation of these vulnerabilities might also result in code execution on the host system from the guest system or on the service console in ESX Server from the guest operating system. This exploit scenario is relevant for Workstation 6.0.x (version 6.0.3 and below), Player 2.0.x (version 2.0.3 and below), ACE 2.0.x (version 2.0.3 and below), Server 1.0.x (version 1.0.5 and below), and ESX3.5. The parameter 'vix.inGuest.enable' in the VMware configuration file must be set to true to allow for exploitation on these products. Note that the parameter 'vix-inGuest.enable' is set to false by default.
The parameter 'vix.inGuest.enable' is present in the following products :
VMware Workstation 6.0.2 and higher VMware ACE 6.0.2 and higher VMware Server 1.06 and higher VMware Fusion 1.1.2 and higher ESX Server 3.0 and higher ESX Server 3.5 and higher
In previous versions of VMware products where the VIX API was introduced, the VIX API couldn't be disabled.
This vulnerability is present in ESX and the hosted products even if you have not installed the VIX API. To patch your system you will need to update to the new hosted product version or to apply the appropriate ESX patch. It is not necessary to update the VIX API if you have installed the VIX API.
VMware would like to thank Andrew Honig of the Department of Defense for reporting this issue.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-2100 to this issue.
II Service Console rpm updates
NOTE: ESXi and hosted products are not affected by any service console security updates
a. Security update for cyrus-sasl
Updated cyrus-sasl package for the ESX Service Console corrects a security issue found in the DIGEST-MD5 authentication mechanism of Cyrus' implementation of Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL). As a result of this issue in the authentication mechanism, a remote unauthenticated attacker might be able to cause a denial of service error on the service console.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2006-1721 to this issue.
b. Security update for tcltk
An input validation flaw was discovered in Tk's GIF image handling. A code-size value read from a GIF image was not properly validated before being used, leading to a buffer overflow. A specially crafted GIF file could use this to cause a crash or, potentially, execute code with the privileges of the application using the Tk graphical toolkit.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-0553 to this issue.
A buffer overflow flaw was discovered in Tk's animated GIF image handling.
An animated GIF containing an initial image smaller than subsequent images could cause a crash or, potentially, execute code with the privileges of the application using the Tk library.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2007-5378 to this issue.
A flaw first discovered in the Tcl regular expression engine used in the PostgreSQL database server, resulted in an infinite loop when processing certain regular expressions.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2007-4772 to this issue.
c. Security update for unzip
This patch includes a moderate security update to the service console that fixes a flaw in unzip. An attacker could execute malicious code with a user's privileges if the user ran unzip on a file designed to leverage this flaw.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-0888 to this issue.
d. Security update for krb5
KDC in MIT Kerberos 5 (krb5kdc) does not set a global variable for some krb4 message types, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via crafted messages that trigger a NULL pointer dereference or double-free.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-0062 to this issue.
NOTE: ESX doesn't contain the krb5kdc binary and is not vulnerable to this issue.
The Kerberos 4 support in KDC in MIT Kerberos 5 (krb5kdc) does not properly clear the unused portion of a buffer when generating an error message, which might allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive information, aka 'Uninitialized stack values.'
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-0063 to this issue.
NOTE: ESX doesn't contain the krb5kdc binary and is not vulnerable to this issue.
Buffer overflow in the RPC library (lib/rpc/rpc_dtablesize.c) used by libgssrpc and kadmind in MIT Kerberos 5 (krb5) 1.2.2, and probably other versions before 1.3, when running on systems whose unistd.h does not define the FD_SETSIZE macro, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code by triggering a large number of open file descriptors.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-0948 to this issue.
Solution
Apply the missing patches.See Also
http://lists.vmware.com/pipermail/security-announce/2008/000022.html
Plugin Details
Severity: High
ID: 40378
File Name: vmware_VMSA-2008-0009.nasl
Version: 1.27
Type: local
Family: VMware ESX Local Security Checks
Published: 7/27/2009
Updated: 1/6/2021
Supported Sensors: Nessus
Risk Information
VPR
Risk Factor: Medium
Score: 6.7
CVSS v2
Risk Factor: High
Base Score: 9.3
Temporal Score: 6.9
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Vulnerability Information
CPE: cpe:/o:vmware:esx:2.5.4, cpe:/o:vmware:esx:3.0.1, cpe:/o:vmware:esx:2.5.5, cpe:/o:vmware:esx:3.0.2, cpe:/o:vmware:esxi:3.5, cpe:/o:vmware:esx:3.5
Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/VMware/release, Host/VMware/version
Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available
Patch Publication Date: 6/4/2008
Vulnerability Publication Date: 4/7/2006
Reference Information
CVE: CVE-2006-1721, CVE-2007-4772, CVE-2007-5137, CVE-2007-5378, CVE-2007-5671, CVE-2008-0062, CVE-2008-0063, CVE-2008-0553, CVE-2008-0888, CVE-2008-0948, CVE-2008-0967, CVE-2008-2097, CVE-2008-2100