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ESX Server 3.0.1, Patch ESX-1004725: VMware VIX API Memory Overflow Vulnerabilities

Details

Release Date: 06/03/08
Document Last Updated: 06/03/08
 
9fafb04c6d3f6959e623832f539d2dc8
Product Versions
ESX Server 3.0.1
Patch Classification
Security
Supersedes
Virtual Machine Migration or Reboot Required
No
ESX Server Host Reboot Required
No
PRs Fixed
244321, 259538, 259542, 259544, 259575, 265676
Affected Hardware
N/A
Affected Software
Unknown
RPMs Included
VMware-hostd-esx
Related CVE numbers
CVE-2008-2100

Summary

The VIX API (also known as Vix) is an API that lets users write scripts and programs to manipulate virtual machines. It is high-level, easy to use, and practical for both script developers and application programmers. Buffer overflow vulnerabilities are present in the VIX API. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities might result in code execution on the host system or on the service console in ESX Server from the guest operating system.
 
The VIX API can be enabled and disabled using the vix.inGuest.enable setting in the VMware configuration file. This default value for this setting is "disabled." This configuration setting is present in the following products:
  • VMware Workstation 6.0.2 and higher
  • VMware ACE 6.0.2 and higher
  • VMware Server 1.06 and higher
  • VMware Fusion 1.1.2 and higher
  • ESX Server 3.0 and higher
  • ESX Server 3.5 and higher

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-2100 to this issue.  To complete the fix, install ESX-1004725 and ESX-1004186.

Solution

Symptoms

No symptoms are available for this issue. 

Deployment Considerations

N/A 

Download Instructions

Download and verify the patch bundle as follows:

1.      Download patch ESX-1004725 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-1004725.tgz

The md5 checksum output should match the following:

9fafb04c6d3f6959e623832f539d2dc8 ESX-1004725.tgz
 

7.      Extract the compressed tar archive:

# tar -xvzf ESX-1004725.tgz

8.      Change to the newly created directory, /var/updates/ESX-1004725:

# cd ESX-1004725

Installation Instructions

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-1004725 update

For example, if the host is called depot:

# esxupdate -r file:///depot/var/updates/ESX-1004725 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-1004725 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;esx301;alertz;urlz

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1004725
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x