Support Content Notification - Support Portal

VMSA-2020-0002:VMware Tools workaround addresses a local privilege escalation vulnerability

Product/Component

VMware

0 more products

Notification Id

23569

Last Updated

12 January 2020

Initial Publication Date

07 January 2020

Status

CLOSED

Severity

HIGH

CVSS Base Score

7.8

WorkAround

Affected CVE

CVE-2020-3941

Advisory ID: VMSA-2020-0002

CVSSv3 Range: 7.8

Issue Date:2020-01-14

Updated On: 2020-01-14 (Initial Advisory)

CVE(s): CVE-2020-3941

Synopsis: VMware Tools workaround addresses a local privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2020-3941)

1. Impacted Products

VMware Tools for Windows (VMware Tools)

2. Introduction

A vulnerability in VMware Tools in functionality that was removed from VMware Tools 11.0.0 has been determined to affect VMware Tools for Windows version 10.x.y. Workarounds are available to address this vulnerability in affected VMware Tools versions.

3. VMware Tools workaround addresses a local privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2020-3941)

Description

The repair operation of VMware Tools for Windows has a race condition. VMware has evaluated the severity of this issue to be in the Important severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 7.8.

Known Attack Vectors

A malicious actor on the guest VM might exploit the race condition and escalate their privileges on a Windows VM. This issue affects VMware Tools for Windows version 10.x.y as the affected functionality is not present in VMware Tools 11.

Resolution

To remediate CVE-2020-3941, update to VMware Tools version 11.0 or later.

Workarounds

A workaround for CVE-2020-3941 has been documented in the VMware Knowledge Base article listed in the "Workarounds" column of the "Response Matrix" below.

Additional Documentation

None.

Notes

None.

Acknowledgements

None.

Response Matrix

Product	Version	Running On	CVE Identifier	CVSSv3	Severity	Fixed Version	Workarounds	Additional Documentation
VMware Tools	11.x.y	Any	CVE-2020-3941	N/A	N/A	Not affected	N/A	N/A
VMware Tools	10.x.y	Windows	CVE-2020-3941	7.8	important	11.0.0 * or 11.0.1 or 11.0.5	KB76654	None
VMware Tools	10.x.y	Linux	CVE-2020-3941	N/A	N/A	Not affected	N/A	N/A

* In case you are using the native service discovery feature in vRealize Operations Manager 8.0, or using the vRealize Operations Service Discovery Management Pack with previous releases of vRealize Operations Manager (7.x or before) we recommend upgrading to VMware Tools 11.0.1 or 11.0.5.