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ESX Server 3.0.2, Patch ESX-1002971: Security Update to the Perl Package

Details

Release Date: 01/02/08

Document Last Updated: 01/02/08

Download Now
Download Size:
10.0 MB
Download Filename:
ESX-1002971.tgz
md5sum:
337b09d9ae4b1694a045e216b69765e1

Product Versions	ESX Server 3.0.2
Patch Classification	Security
Supersedes	None
Virtual Machine Migration or Reboot Required	Yes
ESX Server Host Reboot Required	Yes
PRs Fixed	216244
Affected Hardware	N/A
Affected Software	Unknown
RPMs Included	perl-5.8.0-97.EL3
Related CVE numbers	CVE-2007-5116

Summary

This patch provides updates to the Perl package distributed with the service console for ESX Server 3.0.2. The update adresses an issue where the regular expression engine in Perl can be used to issue a specially crafted regular expression that allows an attacker to run arbitrary code with the permissions level of the current Perl user.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2007-5116 to this issue.

Note: This issue only affects the service console network, and is not a remote vulnerability for ESX Server hosts that have been set up with the security best practices provided by VMware. See http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/726 for more information on security best practices.

Solution

Symptoms

There are no symptoms for this security issue.

Deployment Considerations

N/A

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

1. Download patch ESX-1002971 from http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vi3_patches.html .

2. Log in to the ESX Server service console as root.

3. Create a local depot directory.

# mkdir -p /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-1002971.tgz

The md5 checksum output should match the following:

337b09d9ae4b1694a045e216b69765e1 ESX-1002971.tgz

7. Extract the compressed tar archive:

# tar -xvzf ESX-1002971.tgz

8. Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-1002971:

# cd ESX-1002971

Installation Instructions

Note: All virtual machines on the host must be either shut down or migrated using VMotion before applying the patch. A reboot of the ESX Server host is required after applying this patch.

After you download and extract the archive, and if you are in the directory that you previously created, use the following command to install the update:

# esxupdate update

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

# esxupdate -r file://<directory>/ESX-1002971 update

For example, if the host is called depot:

# esxupdate -r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-1002971 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 file://<directory>/ESX-1002971 update

For more information how to use esxupdate, see the Patch Management for ESX Server 3 tech note at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_esxupdate.pdf .

Keywords

esxpatch;esx302;alertz;urlz

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KB Article: 1002971
Updated: Aug 14, 2009

Products:
VMware ESX
Product Versions:
VMware ESX 3.0.x

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