VMware ESXi 5.5, Patch Release ESXi550-201808001

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Release Date: August 14, 2018

This ESXi patch provides part of the hypervisor-specific mitigation of CVE-2018-3646. For important details on this mitigation, see VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2018-0020.

ESXi 5.5 Patch Release ESXi550-201808001 introduces the ESXi advanced configuration option HyperthreadingMitigation. The new option mitigates the vulnerability described in CVE-2018-3646. For more information on vulnerability assessment and full mitigation steps for the vSphere environment, see the VMware Knowledge base article 55636.
ESXi 5.5 Patch Release ESXi550-201808001 introduces the ESXi advanced configuration option SuppressHyperthreadWarning. After the installation of the ESXi patch, if your environment has hosts vulnerable to CVE-2018-3646, an alert is displayed in the Summary tab of either the vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client. SuppressHyperthreadWarning can be used to suppress this alert.

Download Filename:

ESXi550-201808001.zip

Build:

9313066

Download Size:

364.9 MB

md5sum:

adb93a921cff044884b852084b5a7475

sha1checksum:

523a5382270a59626e9eabbf5d1d4f91c0bfd4b8

Host Reboot Required: Yes

Virtual Machine Migration or Shutdown Required: Yes

Bulletins

Bulletin ID	Category	Severity	Knowledge Base Article
ESXi550-201808401-BG	Bugfix	Important	56557
ESXi550-201808402-BG	Bugfix	Important	56558
ESXi550-201808403-BG	Bugfix	Important	56894

Rollup Bulletin

This rollup bulletin contains the latest VIBs with all the fixes since the initial release of ESXi 5.5.

Bulletin ID	Category	Severity
ESXi550-201808001	Bugfix	Important

Image Profiles

Image Profile Name	Knowledge Base Article
ESXi-5.5.0-20180804001-standard	56555
ESXi-5.5.0-20180804001-no-tools	56556

For information on patch and update classification, see KB 2014447.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Resolution

Summaries and Symptoms

This patch release contains the bug fixes for ESXi. For more information, see the KB articles for the individual bulletins.

For information about the issues fixed with the ESXi-5.5.0-20180804001-standard image profile, see KB 56555.
For information about the issues fixed with the ESXi-5.5.0-20180804001-no-tools image profile, see KB 56556.

Deployment Considerations

None beyond the required patch bundles and reboot information listed above.

Patch Download and Installation

The typical way to apply patches to ESXi hosts is through the VMware Update Manager. For details, see the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager.

ESXi hosts can be updated by manually downloading the patch ZIP file from the VMware download page and installing the VIB by using the esxcli software vib command. Additionally, the system can be updated using the image profile and the esxcli software profile command. For details, see the vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examplesand the vSphere Upgrade Guide.