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ESX Server 3.0.0, Patch ESX-55052: Security Issue With Tools Provided With ESX Server

Details

Security Issues

This patch resolves an issue with some of the tools provided with ESX Server 3.0.0. The issue is an integer overflow in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library for the GNU Debugger (gdb) before version 6.3, binutils, elfutils, and possibly other packages, that allows user-assisted attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted object file that specifies a large number of section headers, leading to a heap-based buffer overflow.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE-2005-1704 to this issue.

Solution

Applicability

This patch is for ESX Server 3.0.0 only. For the related patch for ESX Server 3.0.0, please refer to http://kb.vmware.com/kb/3003211.

Installing the Patch

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows :

  1. Download patch ESX-55052 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-55052.tgz

    The md5 checksum output should match the following:

    8d45e36ec997707ebe68d84841026fef ESX-55052.tgz

  7. Extract the compressed tar archive:

    # tar -xvzf ESX-55052.tgz

  8. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-55052:

    # cd ESX-55052

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.

After 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-55052 update

For example, if the host is called depot:

# esxupdate –r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-55052 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-55052 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

esx300;esxpatch;CVE-2005-1704

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Actions
  • KB Article: 55052
  • Updated: Mar 5, 2008
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x