VMSA-2011-0007

VMware ESXi and ESX Denial of Service and third party updates for Likewise components and ESX Service Console

1. Summary

VMware ESXi and ESX could encounter a socket exhaustion situation which may lead to a denial of service. Updates to Likewise components and to the ESX Service Console address security vulnerabilities.

2. Relevant releases

VMware ESXi 4.1 without patch ESXi410-201104401-SG.
VMware ESXi 4.0 without patch ESXi400-201104401-SG.

VMware ESX 4.1 without patch ESX410-201104401-SG.
VMware ESX 4.0 without patch ESX400-201104401-SG.

3. Problem Description

a. ESX/ESXi Socket Exhaustion
By sending malicious network traffic to an ESXi or ESX host an attacker could exhaust the available sockets which would prevent further connections to the host. In the event a host becomes inaccessible its virtual machines will continue to run and have network connectivity but a reboot of the ESXi or ESX host may be required in order to be able to connect to the host again.
ESXi and ESX hosts may intermittently lose connectivity caused by applications that do not correctly close sockets. If this occurs an error message similar to the following may be written to the vpxa log:
socket() returns -1 (Cannot allocate memory)
An error message similar to the following may be written to the vmkernel logs:
socreate(type=2, proto=17) failed with error 55
VMware would like to thank Jimmy Scott at inet-solutions.be for reporting this issue to us.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2011-1785 to this issue.
Column 4 of the following table lists the action required to remediate the vulnerability in each release, if a solution is available.

* hosted products are VMware Workstation, Player, ACE, Fusion.

b. Likewise package update
Updates to the vmware-esx-likewise-openldap and vmware-esx-likewise-krb5 packages address several security issues.
One of the vulnerabilities is specific to Likewise while the other vulnerabilities are present in the MIT version of krb5. An incorrect assert() call in Likewise may lead to a termination of the Likewise-open lsassd service if a username with an illegal byte sequence is entered for user authentication when logging in to the Active Directory domain of the ESXi/ESX host. This would lead to a denial of service. The MIT-krb5 vulnerabilities are detailed in MITKRB5-SA-2010-007.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2011-1786 (Likewise-only issue), CVE-2010-1324, CVE-2010-1323, CVE-2010-4020, CVE-2010-4021 to these issues.
Column 4 of the following table lists the action required to remediate the vulnerability in each release, if a solution is available.

* hosted products are VMware Workstation, Player, ACE, Fusion.

c. ESX third party update for Service Console kernel
The Service Console kernel is updated to include a fix for a security issue.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2010-2240 to this issue.

* hosted products are VMware Workstation, Player, ACE, Fusion.

4. Solution

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

ESXi 4.1
--------
ESXi410-201104001
Download link:
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/OFFLINE/release-276-20110420-682352/ESXi410-201104001.zip
md5sum: 23bd026d6cbca718fe50ed1dd73cfe9d
sha1sum: 82fa6da02a1f37430a15a659254426b3d3a62662
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1035111

ESXi410-201104001 contains ESXi410-201104401-SG.

ESX 4.1
-------
ESX410-201104001
Download link:
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/OFFLINE/release-275-20110420-062017/ESX410-201104001.zip
md5sum: 757c3370ae63c75ef5b2178bd35a4ac3
sha1sum: 95cfdc08e0988b4a0c0c3ea1a1acc1c661979888
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1035110

ESX410-201104001 contains ESX410-201104401-SG.

ESXi 4.0
--------
ESXi400-201104001
Download link:
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/OFFLINE/release-278-20110424-080274/ESXi400-201104001.zip
md5sum: 08216b7ba18988f608326e245ac27e98
sha1sum: 508a04532f0af007ce7c9d7693371470ed8257f0
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1037261

ESXi400-201104001 contains ESXi400-201104401-SG.

ESX 4.0
-------
ESX400-201104001 Download link:
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/OFFLINE/release-277-20110424-816604/ESX400-201104001.zip
md5sum: 1a305fbf6c751403e56ef4e33cabde06
sha1sum: bc7577cb80e69fbe81e3e9272a182deb42987b3d
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1037260

ESX400-201104001 contains ESX400-201104401-SG.

5. References

CVE numbers
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2011-1785
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2011-1786
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-1324
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-1323
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-4020
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-4021
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2010-2240

VMSA-2011-0003
http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2011-0003.html

MITKRB5-SA-2010-007
http://web.mit.edu/Kerberos/advisories/MITKRB5-SA-2010-007.txt

6. Change log

2011-04-28 VMSA-2011-0007

Initial security advisory in conjunction with the release of ESX/ESXi 4.0 and ESX/ESXi 4.1 patches on 2011-04-28.

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 Advisories
http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories

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


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