VMSA-2009-0017

VMware vCenter, ESX patch and vCenter Lab Manager releases address cross-site scripting issues

1. Summary

VMware vCenter and ESX update releases address cross-site scripting
issues in the Help functionality of WebAccess. A vCenter Lab Manager
release addresses the same issues which are present in the online
Help functionality of Lab Manager and Stage Manager.

3. Problem Description

a. WebWorks Help - Cross-site scripting vulnerability

WebWorks Help is an output format that allows online Help to be
delivered on multiple platforms and browsers, which makes it easy
to publish information on the Web or on an enterprise intranet.
WebWorks Help is used for creating the online help pages that are
available in VMware WebAccess, Lab Manager and Stage Manager.
WebWorks Help doesn't sufficiently sanitize incoming requests which
may result in cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in applications
that are built with WebWorks Help.
Exploitation of these vulnerabilities in VMware products requires
tricking a user to click on a malicious link or to open a malicious
web page while they are logged in into vCenter, ESX or VMware
Server using WebAccess, or logged in into Stage Manager or Lab
Manager.
Successful exploitation can lead to theft of user credentials. These
vulnerabilities can be exploited remotely only if the attacker has
access to the Service Console network.
Security best practices provided by VMware recommend that the
Service Console be isolated from the VM network. Please see
http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/726 for more
information on VMware security best practices.
Client-side protection measures included with current browsers are not
always able to prevent these attacks from being executed.
VMware would like to thank Daniel Grzelak and Alex Kouzemtchenko of
stratsec (www.stratsec.net) for finding and reporting this issue.
VMware would also like to thank Ben Allums of WebWorks.com for working
on the remediation of this issue with us.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has
assigned the name CVE-2009-3731 to this issue.
The following table lists what action remediates the vulnerability
(column 4) if a solution is available.

Note: The remediation provided by WebWorks.com is not applicable
to VMware products.

4. Solution

Please review the patch/release notes for your product and version
and verify the md5sum of your downloaded file.

VMware vCenter Server 4 Update 1
--------------------------------
Version 4.0 Update 1
Build Number 208156
Release Date 2009/11/19
Type Product Binaries
http://downloads.vmware.com/download/download.do?downloadGroup=VC40U1

VMware vCenter Server 4 and modules
File size: 1.8 GB
File type: .iso
MD5SUM: 057d55b32eb27fe5f3e01bc8d3df3bc5
SHA1SUM: c90134418c2e4d3d6637d8bee44261300ad95ec1

VMware vCenter Server 4 and modules
File size: 1.5 GB
File type: .zip
MD5SUM: f843d9c19795eb3bc5a77f5c545468a8
SHA1SUM: 9a7abd8e70bd983151e2ee40e1b3931525c4480c

VMware vSphere Client and Host Update Utility
File size: 113.8 MB
File type: .exe
MD5SUM: 6cc6b2c958e7e9529c284e48dfae22a9
SHA1SUM: f4c19c63a75d93cffc57b170066358160788c959

VMware vCenter Converter BootCD
File size: 98.8 MB
File type: .zip
MD5SUM: 3df94eb0e93de76b0389132ada2a3799
SHA1SUM: 5d7c04e4f9f8ae25adc8de5963fefd8a4c92464c

VMware vCenter Converter CLI (Linux)
File size: 36.9 MB
File type: .tar.gz
MD5SUM: 3766097563936ba5e03e87e898f6bd48
SHA1SUM: 36d485bdb5eb279296ce8c8523df04bfb12a2cb4

ESX 4.0
-------
ESX400-200911223-UG (Update 1a)
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/OFFLINE/release-166-20091202-254879/ESX-4.0.0-update01a.zip
md5sum: 99c1fcafbf0ca105ce73840d686e9914
sha1sum: aa8a23416271bc28b6b8f6bdbe00045e36314ebb
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1014842

To install an individual bulletin use esxupdate with the -b option.
esxupdate --bundle=ESX-4.0.0-update01.zip -b ESX400-200911223-UG

VMware Server 2.0.2
-------------------
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016594

Stage Manager
-------------
http://www.vmware.com/products/sm/faq.html

Lab Manager 4.0.1
-----------------
http://downloads.vmware.com/download/download.do?downloadGroup=VLM401
md5sum: b4d8f5637eaea59f028eafe62d0366ab
sha1sum: a437726b45dce0a72fb5cbd3996a6d6f84e6c8df
http://www.vmware.com/support/labmanager40/doc/releasenotes_labmanager401.html

5. References

http://www.webworks.com/Security/2009-0001

CVE numbers
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3731

6. Change log

2009-12-15 VMSA-2009-0017
Initial security advisory after publication of information by third
party vendor, WebWorks.com, on 2009-12-15.

7. Contact

E-mail list for product security notifications and announcements:
http://lists.vmware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/security-announce

This Security Advisory is posted to the following lists:

* security-announce at lists.vmware.com
* bugtraq at securityfocus.com
* full-disclosure at lists.grok.org.uk

E-mail: security at vmware.com
PGP key at: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1055

VMware Security Center
http://www.vmware.com/security

VMware security response policy
http://www.vmware.com/support/policies/security_response.html

General support life cycle policy
http://www.vmware.com/support/policies/eos.html

VMware Infrastructure support life cycle policy
http://www.vmware.com/support/policies/eos_vi.html

Copyright 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.