VMSA-2017-0013

VMware vCenter Server and Tools updates resolve multiple  security vulnerabilities

1. Summary

VMware vCenter Server and Tools updates resolve multiple security vulnerabilities

2. Relevant Products

• VMware vCenter Server  
  
• VMware Tools
  

3. Problem Description

a. Insecure library loading through LD_LIBRARY_PATH 

VMware vCenter Server contains an insecure library loading issue that occurs due to the use of LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable in an unsafe manner. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow unprivileged host users to load a shared library that may lead to privilege escalation.      

Note: In order to exploit this issue an attacker should be able to trick the admin to execute wrapper scripts from a world writable directory.      

VMware would like to thank Thorsten Tüllmann, researcher at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for reporting this issue to us.     

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2017-4921 to this issue.

Column 5 of the following table lists the action required to remediate the vulnerability in each release, if a solution is available.

b. Information disclosure via service startup script

VMware vCenter Server contains an information disclosure issue due to the service startup script using world writable directories as temporary storage for critical information. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow unprivileged host users to access certain critical information when the service gets restarted.     

VMware would like to thank Thorsten Tüllmann, researcher at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for reporting this issue to us.     

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2017-4922 to this issue.

Column 5 of the following table lists the action required to remediate the vulnerability in each release, if a solution is available.

c. Information disclosure via vCenter Server Appliance file-based backup feature

VMware vCenter Server contains an information disclosure vulnerability. This issue may allow plaintext credentials to be obtained when using the vCenter Server Appliance file-based backup feature.      

VMware would like to thank Joe Womack of Expedia for reporting this issue to us.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2017-4923 to this issue.

Column 5 of the following table lists the action required to remediate the vulnerability in each release, if a solution is available.

d. Local privilege escalation in VMware Tools

VMware Tools contains multiple file system races in libDeployPkg, related to the use of hard-coded paths under /tmp. Successful exploitation of this issue may result in a local privilege escalation.      

VMware would like to thank Florian Weimer and Kurt Seifried of Red Hat Product Security for reporting this issue to us.     

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2015-5191 to this issue.

Column 5 of the following table lists the action required to remediate the vulnerability in each release, if a solution is available.

4. Solution

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

VMware vCenter Server 6.5 U1 

Downloads:

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VC65U1&productId=614&rPId=17343

Documentation:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/index.html

VMware Tools 10.0.9

Downloads and Documentation:  

        https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?productId=491&

        downloadGroup=VMTOOLS1009

5. References

          http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-4921  

          http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-4922  

          http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-4923  

          http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2015-5191

6. Change log

2017-07-27 VMSA-2017-0013  

Initial security advisory in conjunction with the release of VMware vCenter Server 6.5 U1 on 2017-07-27.

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:

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

E-mail: [email protected]

PGP key at: https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1055

VMware Security Advisories

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

Consolidated list of VMware Security Advisories

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2078735

VMware Security Response Policy

https://www.vmware.com/support/policies/security_response.html

VMware Lifecycle Support Phases

https://www.vmware.com/support/policies/lifecycle.html

VMware Security & Compliance Blog  

https://blogs.vmware.com/security

Twitter

https://twitter.com/VMwareSRC

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