10 - VMSA-2008-0014

a. Setting ActiveX killbit

Starting from this release, VMware has set the killbit on its ActiveX controls. Setting the killbit ensures that ActiveX controls cannot run in Internet Explorer (IE), and avoids security issues involving ActiveX controls in IE. See the Microsoft KB article 240797 and the related references on this topic.

Security vulnerabilities have been reported for ActiveX controls provided by VMware when run in IE. Under specific circumstances, exploitation of these ActiveX controls might result in denial-of- service or can allow running of arbitrary code when the user browses a malicious Web site or opens a malicious file in IE browser. An attempt to run unsafe ActiveX controls in IE might result in pop-up windows warning the user.

Note: IE can be configured to run unsafe ActiveX controls without prompting. VMware recommends that you retain the default settings in IE, which prompts when unsafe actions are requested.

Earlier, VMware had issued knowledge base articles, KB 5965318 and KB 9078920 on security issues with ActiveX controls. To avoid malicious scripts that exploit ActiveX controls, do not enable unsafe ActiveX objects in your browser settings. As a best practice, do not browse untrusted Web sites as an administrator and do not click OK or Yes if prompted by IE to allow certain actions.

VMware would like to thank Julien Bachmann, Shennan Wang, Shinnai, and Michal Bucko for reporting these issues to us.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2008-3691, CVE-2008-3692, CVE-2008-3693, CVE-2008-3694, CVE-2008-3695, CVE-2007-5438, and CVE-2008-3696 to the security issues with VMware ActiveX controls.

b. VMware ISAPI Extension Denial of Service

The Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) is an API that extends the functionality of Internet Information Server (IIS). VMware uses ISAPI extensions in its Server product.

One of the ISAPI extensions provided by VMware is vulnerable to a remote denial of service. By sending a malformed request, IIS might shut down. IIS 6.0 restarts automatically. However, IIS 5.0 does not restart automatically when its Startup Type is set to Manual.

VMware would like to thank the Juniper Networks J-Security Security Research Team for reporting this issue to us.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-3697 to this issue.

c. OpenProcess Local Privilege Escalation on Host System

This release fixes a privilege escalation vulnerability in host systems. Exploitation of this vulnerability allows users to run arbitrary code on the host system with elevated privileges.

VMware would like to thank Sun Bing from McAfee, Inc. for reporting this issue to us.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-3698 to this issue.

d. Update to Freetype

FreeType 2.3.6 resolves an integer overflow vulnerability and other vulnerabilities that can allow malicious users to run arbitrary code or might cause a denial-of-service after reading a maliciously crafted file. This release updates FreeType to 2.3.7.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.com) has assigned the names CVE-2008-1806, CVE-2008-1807, and CVE-2008-1808 to the issues resolved in Freetype 2.3.6.

e. Update to Cairo

Cairo 1.4.12 resolves an integer overflow vulnerability that can allow malicious users to run arbitrary code or might cause a denial-of-service after reading a maliciously crafted PNG file. This release updates Cairo to 1.4.14.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (cve.mitre.com) has assigned the name CVE-2007-5503 to this issue.

f. VMware Consolidated Backup(VCB) command-line utilities may expose sensitive information

VMware Consolidated Backup command-line utilities accept the user password through the -p command-line option. Users logged into the service console could gain access to the username and password used by VCB command-line utilities when such commands are running.

This patch resolves this issue by providing an alternative way of passing the password used by VCB command-line utilities.

The following options are recommended for passing the password:

1. The password is specified in /etc/backuptools.conf (PASSWORD=xxxxx), and -p is not used in the command line. /etc/backuptools.conf file permissions are read/write only for root.

2. No password is specified in /etc/backuptools.conf and the -p option is not used in the command line. The user will be prompted to enter a password.

ESX is not affected unless you use VCB.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-2101 to this issue.

g. Third Party Library libpng Updated to 1.2.29

Several flaws were discovered in the way third party library libpng handled various PNG image chunks. An attacker could create a carefully crafted PNG image file in such a way that it causes an application linked with libpng to crash when the file is manipulated.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2007-5269 to this issue.

NOTE: There are multiple patches required to remediate the issue.

a. update to bind

This update upgrades the service console rpms for bind-utils and bind-lib to version 9.2.4-22.el3.

Version 9.2.4.-22.el3 addresses the recently discovered vulnerability in the BIND software used for Domain Name resolution (DNS). VMware doesn't install all the BIND packages on ESX Server and is not vulnerable by default to the reported vulnerability. Of the BIND packages, VMware only ships bind-util and bind-lib in the service console and these components by themselves cannot be used to setup a DNS server. Bind-lib and bind-util are used in client DNS applications like nsupdate, nslookup, etc.

VMware explicitly discourages installing applications like BIND on the service console. In case the customer has installed BIND, and the DNS server is configured to support recursive queries, their ESX Server system is affected and they should replace BIND with a patched version.

Note: ESX Server will use the DNS server on the network it is on, so it is important to patch that DNS server.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2008-1447 to this issue.