VMSA-2014-0005:VMware Workstation, Player, Fusion, and ESXi patches address a guest privilege escalation
23446
27 May 2014
27 May 2014
CLOSED
HIGH
CVE-2014-3793
VMSA-2014-0005
VMware Workstation, Player, Fusion, and ESXi patches address a guest privilege escalation
VMware Security Advisory
1. Summary
VMware Workstation, Player, Fusion, and ESXi patches address a vulnerability in VMware Tools which could result in a privilege escalation on Microsoft Windows 8.1.
2. Relevant Releases
VMware Workstation 10.x prior to version 10.0.2
VMware Player 6.x prior to version 6.0.2
VMware Fusion 6.x prior to version 6.0.3
ESXi 5.5 without patch ESXi550-201403102-SG
ESXi 5.1 without patch ESXi510-201404102-SG
ESXi 5.0 without patch ESXi500-201405102-SG
3. Problem Description
a. Guest privilege escalation in VMware Tools
A kernel NULL dereference vulnerability was found in VMware Tools running on Microsoft Windows 8.1. Successful exploitation of this issue could lead to an escalation of privilege in the guest operating system.
VMware would like to thank Tavis Ormandy from the Google Security Team for reporting this issue to us.
The vulnerability does not allow for privilege escalation from the Guest Operating System to the host. This means that host memory can not be manipulated from the Guest Operating System.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2014-3793 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.
VMware Product
Product Version
Running on
Replace with / Apply Patch*
* After the update or patch is applied, VMware Guest Tools must be updated in any pre-existing Windows 8.1 Guest Operating System followed by a reboot of the guest system.
** Workstation 9.x, Player 5.x and Fusion 5.x do not support Windows 8.1 Guest Operating Systems
4. Solution
Please review the patch/release notes for your product and version and verify the checksum of your downloaded file.
Workstation 10.x
https://www.vmware.com/go/downloadworkstation
VMware Player 6.x
https://www.vmware.com/go/downloadplayer
Fusion 6.x
https://www.vmware.com/go/downloadfusion
ESXi 5.5
File: update-from-esxi5.5-5.5_update01.zip
md5sum: 5773844efc7d8e43135de46801d6ea25
sha1sum: 6518355d260e81b562c66c5016781db9f077161f
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2065832
update-from-esxi5.5-5.5_update01 contains ESXi550-201403102-SG
ESXi 5.1
File: ESXi510-201404001.zip
md5sum: 9dc3c9538de4451244a2b62d247e52c4
sha1sum: 6b1ea36a2711665a670afc9ae37cdd616bb6da66
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2070666
ESXi510-201404001 contains ESXi510-201404102-SG
ESXi 5.0
File: ESXi500-201405001.zip
md5sum: 7cd1afc97f5f1e4b4132c90835f92e1d
sha1sum: 4bd77eeb5d7fc65bbb6f25762b0fa74fbb9679d5
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2075521
ESXi500-201405001 contains ESXi500-201405102-SG
6. Change Log
2014-05-29 - VMSA-2014-0005
Initial security advisory in conjunction with the release of ESXi 5.0 patches on 2014-05-29
7. Contact
E-mail list for product security notifications and announcements:
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This Security Advisory is posted to the following lists:
* security-announce at lists.vmware.com
* bugtraq at securityfocus.com
* fulldisclosure at seclists.org
E-mail: security at vmware.com
PGP key at: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1055
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