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The issue described in this Security Alert has been remediated by VMware. Please see VMSA-0008-0005 for patch information.
Windows hosted versions of:
To improve user inter-operation with virtualized systems VMware's software implements a number of inter-system communication features. The Shared Folder mechanism is one of such feature.
VMware's shared folders allow users to transfer data between a virtualized system (Guest) and the non-virtualized Host system that contains it. This form of data transfer is available to users of the Guest system through read and write access to filesystem folders shared by both Guest and Host systems. To maintain effective isolation between Guest and Host systems, this mechanism should limit access from the Guest only to the Host system's folders that are selected for sharing with the virtualized guests.
A vulnerability was found in VMware's shared folders mechanism that grants users of a Guest system read and write access to any portion of the Host's file system including the system folder and other security-sensitive files. Exploitation of this vulnerability allows attackers to break out of an isolated Guest system to compromise the underlying Host system that controls it.
By default, the shared folders feature is disabled in Workstation 6, Player 2, and ACE 2. In order to exploit this vulnerability, the virtual machine must have the shared folders feature manually enabled and at least one folder configured for sharing between the host and guest. Given the requirements of the vulnerability, it cannot be exploited by default in Workstation 6, Player 2, and ACE 2.
Workstation 5, Player 1, and ACE 1 enable the shared folders feature by default, but exploiting this vulnerability still requires at least one folder to be configured as shared between the host and guest. Given the requirements of the vulnerability, it cannot be exploited by default in Workstation 5, Player 1, and ACE 1.