VMSA-2012-0009 VMware Workstation, Player, ESXi and ESX patches address critical security issues

The remote ESXi is missing one or more security related Updates from VMSA-2012-0009.

VMware Workstation, Player, ESXi and ESX patches address critical security issues: a. VMware host memory overwrite vulnerability (data pointers) Due to a flaw in the handler function for RPC commands, it is possible to manipulate data pointers within the VMX process. This vulnerability may allow a guest user to crash the VMX process or potentially execute code on the host. b. VMware host memory overwrite vulnerability (function pointers) Due to a flaw in the handler function for RPC commands, it is possible to manipulate function pointers within the VMX process. This vulnerability may allow a guest user to crash the VMX process or potentially execute code on the host. c. ESX NFS traffic parsing vulnerability Due to a flaw in the handling of NFS traffic, it is possible to overwrite memory. This vulnerability may allow a user with access to the network to execute code on the ESXi/ESX host without authentication. The issue is not present in cases where there is no NFS traffic. d. VMware floppy device out-of-bounds memory write Due to a flaw in the virtual floppy configuration it is possible to perform an out-of-bounds memory write. This vulnerability may allow a guest user to crash the VMX process or potentially execute code on the host. e. VMware SCSI device unchecked memory write Due to a flaw in the SCSI device registration it is possible to perform an unchecked write into memory. This vulnerability may allow a guest user to crash the VMX process or potentially execute code on the host.

Workstation 8.0.2 Player 4.0.2 Fusion 4.1.2 ESXi 5.0 without patch ESXi500-201205401-SG ESXi 4.1 without patches ESXi410-201205401-SG, ESXi410-201110201-SG, ESXi410-201201401-SG ESXi 4.0 without patches ESXi400-201105201-UG, ESXi400-201205401-SG ESXi 3.5 without patch ESXe350-201205401-I-SG ESX 4.1 without patches ESX410-201205401-SG, ESX410-201110201-SG, ESX410-201201401-SG ESX 4.0 without patches ESX400-201105201-UG, ESX400-201205401-SG ESX 3.5 without patch ESX350-201205401-SG

Apply the missing patch(es). a. VMware host memory overwrite vulnerability (data pointers) Workaround Configure virtual machines to use less than 4 GB of memory. Virtual machines that have less than 4GB of memory are not affected. Mitigation Do not allow untrusted users access to your virtual machines. Root or Administrator level permissions are not required to exploit this issue. b. VMware host memory overwrite vulnerability (function pointers) Workaround None identified Mitigation Do not allow untrusted users access to your virtual machines. Root or Administrator level permissions are not required to exploit this issue. c. ESX NFS traffic parsing vulnerability Workaround None identified Mitigation - Connect only to trusted NFS servers - Segregate the NFS network - Harden your NFS server d. VMware floppy device out-of-bounds memory write Workaround Remove the virtual floppy drive from the list of virtual IO devices. The VMware hardening guides recommend removing unused virtual IO devices in general. Mitigation Do not allow untrusted root users in your virtual machines. Root or Administrator level permissions are required to exploit this issue. e. VMware SCSI device unchecked memory write Workaround Remove the virtual SCSI controller from the list of virtual IO devices. The VMware hardening guides recommend removing unused virtual IO devices in general. Mitigation Do not allow untrusted root users access to your virtual machines. Root or Administrator level permissions are required to exploit this issue.