Detections
Analytics
VMSA-2008-0014 : Updates to VMware Workstation, VMware Player, VMware ACE, VMware Server, VMware ESX, VMware VCB address information disclosure, privilege escalation and other security issues.
medium Nessus Plugin ID 40382
Synopsis
The remote VMware ESXi / ESX host is missing one or more security-related patches.Description
I Security Issuesa. Setting ActiveX kill bit
Starting from this release, VMware has set the kill bit on its ActiveX controls. Setting the kill bit ensures that ActiveX controls cannot run in Internet Explorer (IE), and avoids security issues involving ActiveX controls in IE. See the Microsoft KB article 240797 and the related references on this topic.
Security vulnerabilities have been reported for ActiveX controls provided by VMware when run in IE. Under specific circumstances, exploitation of these ActiveX controls might result in denial-of- service or can allow running of arbitrary code when the user browses a malicious Web site or opens a malicious file in IE browser. An attempt to run unsafe ActiveX controls in IE might result in pop-up windows warning the user.
Note: IE can be configured to run unsafe ActiveX controls without prompting. VMware recommends that you retain the default settings in IE, which prompts when unsafe actions are requested.
Earlier, VMware had issued knowledge base articles, KB 5965318 and KB 9078920 on security issues with ActiveX controls. To avoid malicious scripts that exploit ActiveX controls, do not enable unsafe ActiveX objects in your browser settings. As a best practice, do not browse untrusted Web sites as an administrator and do not click OK or Yes if prompted by IE to allow certain actions.
VMware would like to thank Julien Bachmann, Shennan Wang, Shinnai, and Michal Bucko for reporting these issues to us.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2008-3691, CVE-2008-3692, CVE-2008-3693, CVE-2008-3694, CVE-2008-3695, CVE-2007-5438, and CVE-2008-3696 to the security issues with VMware ActiveX controls.
b. VMware ISAPI Extension Denial of Service
The Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) is an API that extends the functionality of Internet Information Server (IIS). VMware uses ISAPI extensions in its Server product.
One of the ISAPI extensions provided by VMware is vulnerable to a remote denial of service. By sending a malformed request, IIS might shut down. IIS 6.0 restarts automatically. However, IIS 5.0 does not restart automatically when its Startup Type is set to Manual.
VMware would like to thank the Juniper Networks J-Security Security Research Team for reporting this issue to us.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-3697 to this issue.
c. OpenProcess Local Privilege Escalation on Host System
This release fixes a privilege escalation vulnerability in host systems. Exploitation of this vulnerability allows users to run arbitrary code on the host system with elevated privileges.
VMware would like to thank Sun Bing from McAfee, Inc. for reporting this issue to us.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-3698 to this issue.
d. Update to Freetype
FreeType 2.3.6 resolves an integer overflow vulnerability and other vulnerabilities that can allow malicious users to run arbitrary code or might cause a denial-of-service after reading a maliciously crafted file. This release updates FreeType to 2.3.7.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.com) has assigned the names CVE-2008-1806, CVE-2008-1807, and CVE-2008-1808 to the issues resolved in Freetype 2.3.6.
e. Update to Cairo
Cairo 1.4.12 resolves an integer overflow vulnerability that can allow malicious users to run arbitrary code or might cause a denial-of-service after reading a maliciously crafted PNG file.
This release updates Cairo to 1.4.14.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (cve.mitre.com) has assigned the name CVE-2007-5503 to this issue.
f. VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) command-line utilities may expose sensitive information
VMware Consolidated Backup command-line utilities accept the user password through the -p command-line option. Users logged into the ESX service console or into the system that runs VCB could gain access to the username and password used by VCB command-line utilities when such commands are running.
The ESX patch and the new version of VCB resolve this issue by providing an alternative way of passing the password used by VCB command-line utilities.
VCB in ESX
---------- The following options are recommended for passing the password :
1. The password is specified in /etc/backuptools.conf (PASSWORD=xxxxx), and -p is not used in the command line.
/etc/backuptools.conf file permissions are read/write only for root.
2. No password is specified in /etc/backuptools.conf and the
-p option is not used in the command line. The user will be prompted to enter a password.
ESX is not affected unless you use VCB.
Stand-alone VCB
--------------- The following options are recommended for passing the password :
1. The password is specified in config.js (PASSWORD=xxxxx), and -p is not used in the command line. The file permissions on config.js are read/write only for the administrator. The config.js file is located in folder 'config' of the VCB installation folder. For example, C:\Program Files\Vmware\Vmware Consolidated Backup Framework\config.
2. The password is specified in the registry, and is not specified in config.js, and -p is not used in the command line. Access to the registry key holding the password is allowed only to the administrator.
The location of the registry key is :
On Windows x86: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\ VMware Consolidated Backup\Password On Windows x64: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ VMware, Inc.\VMware Consolidated Backup\Password
3. The password is not specified in the registry, and is not specified in config.js, and -p is not used in the command line. The user will be prompted to enter a password.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-2101 to this issue.
g. Third-Party Library libpng Updated to 1.2.29
Several flaws were discovered in the way third-party library libpng handled various PNG image chunks. An attacker could create a carefully crafted PNG image file in such a way that it causes an application linked with libpng to crash when the file is manipulated.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2007-5269 to this issue.
NOTE: There are multiple patches required to remediate the issue.
II ESX Service Console rpm updates
a. update to bind
This update upgrades the service console rpms for bind-utils and bind-lib to version 9.2.4-22.el3.
Version 9.2.4.-22.el3 addresses the recently discovered vulnerability in the BIND software used for Domain Name resolution (DNS). VMware doesn't install all the BIND packages on ESX Server and is not vulnerable by default to the reported vulnerability. Of the BIND packages, VMware only ships bind-util and bind-lib in the service console and these components by themselves cannot be used to setup a DNS server. Bind-lib and bind-util are used in client DNS applications like nsupdate, nslookup, etc.
VMware explicitly discourages installing applications like BIND on the service console. In case the customer has installed BIND, and the DNS server is configured to support recursive queries, their ESX Server system is affected and they should replace BIND with a patched version.
Note: ESX Server will use the DNS server on the network it is on, so it is important to patch that DNS server.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-1447 to this issue.
Solution
Apply the missing patches.See Also
http://lists.vmware.com/pipermail/security-announce/2008/000040.html
Plugin Details
Severity: Medium
ID: 40382
File Name: vmware_VMSA-2008-0014.nasl
Version: 1.42
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: Critical
Base Score: 10
Temporal Score: 7.8
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
CVSS v3
Risk Factor: Medium
Base Score: 6.8
Temporal Score: 6.1
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC: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:3.0.3, cpe:/o:vmware:esx:3.5
Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/VMware/release, Host/VMware/version
Exploit Available: true
Exploit Ease: Exploits are available
Patch Publication Date: 8/29/2008
Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/8/2007
Reference Information
CVE: CVE-2007-5269, CVE-2007-5438, CVE-2007-5503, CVE-2008-1447, CVE-2008-1806, CVE-2008-1807, CVE-2008-1808, CVE-2008-2101, CVE-2008-3691, CVE-2008-3692, CVE-2008-3693, CVE-2008-3694, CVE-2008-3695, CVE-2008-3696, CVE-2008-3697, CVE-2008-3698, CVE-2008-4194