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ESX Server 3.0.1, Patch ESX-2559638: Security Issues With texinfo

Details

Security Fixes

This patch provides updated texinfo packages for the service console in order to fix two security vulnerabilities. The first is an issue where a buffer overflow in the program texinfo could allow a local user to execute arbitrary code in the service console via a specially crafted texinfo file. The second issue comes from the possibility that the texinfo package could allow a local user to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on temporary files.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2005-3011 and CVE-2006-4810 to these issues.

Solution

Applicability

This patch is for ESX Server 3.0.1 only. For the related patch for ESX Server 3.0.0, please refer to http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1121906.

Installing the Patch

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

  1. Download patch ESX-2559638 from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches.html.
  2. Log into the ESX Server service console as root.
  3. Create a local depot directory.

    # mkdir /var/updates

    Note: VMware recommends that you use the updates directory.

  4. Change your working directory to /var/updates.

    # cd /var/updates

  5. Download the tar file into the /var/updates directory.
  6. Verify the integrity of the downloaded tar file.

    # md5sum ESX-2559638.tgz

    The md5 checksum output should match the following:

    9ee9d9769dfe2668aa6a4be2df284ea6 ESX-2559638.tgz

  7. Extract the compressed tar archive.

    # tar -xvzf ESX-2559638.tgz

  8. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-2559638.

    # cd ESX-2559638

Installation Instructions
Note: There is no need to shut down the virtual machines on the host or to migrate them using VMotion before applying the patch. No reboot of the ESX Server host is required after applying this patch.

Once you have downloaded and extracted the archive, and if you are in the directory you created above, install the update using the following command:

# esxupdate update

If you want to run esxupdate from a different directory, you must specify the bundle path in the command:

# esxupdate -r file://<directory>/ESX-2559638 update

For example, if the host is called depot:

# esxupdate –r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-2559638 update

During the update process, logs appear on the terminal. You can specify the verbosity of esxupdate logs by using the -v option as shown below:

# esxupdate -v 10 -r file://<directory>/ESX-2559638 update

For more information on using esxupdate, please refer to the Patch Management for ESX Server 3 tech note at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_esxupdate.pdf.

Keywords

esx301;esxpatch CVE-2005-3011, CVE-2006-4810

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Actions
  • KB Article: 2559638
  • Updated: Mar 11, 2008
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x