VMSA-2013-0014
VMware Workstation, Fusion, ESXi and ESX patches address a guest privilege escalation
VMware Security Advisory
1. Summary
VMware Workstation, Fusion, ESXi and ESX patches address a vulnerability in the LGTOSYNC.SYS driver which could result in a privilege escalation on older Windows-based Guest Operating Systems.
2. Relevant releases
VMware Workstation 9.x prior to version 9.0.3
VMware Player 5.x prior to version 5.0.3
VMware Fusion 5.x prior to version 5.0.4
VMware ESXi 5.1 without patch ESXi510-201304102
VMware ESXi 5.0 without patch ESXi500-201303102
VMware ESXi 4.1 without patch ESXi410-201301402
VMware ESXi 4.0 without patch ESXi400-201305401
VMware ESX 4.1 without patch ESX410-201301401
VMware ESX 4.0 without patch ESX400-201305401
3. Problem Description
a. VMware LGTOSYNC privilege escalation.
VMware ESX, Workstation and Fusion contain a vulnerability in the handling of control code in lgtosync.sys. A local malicious user may exploit this vulnerability to manipulate the memory allocation. This could result in a privilege escalation on 32-bit Guest Operating Systems running Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server on ESXi and ESX; or Windows XP on Workstation and Fusion.
The vulnerability does not allow for privilege escalation from the Guest Operating System to the host. This means that host memory can not be manipulated from the Guest Operating System.
VMware would like to thank Derek Soeder of Cylance, Inc. for reporting this issue to us.
The Common Vulnerabilityies and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2013-3519 to this issue.
Column 4 of the following table lists the action required to remediate the vulnerability in each release, if a solution is available.
VMware Product
Product Version
Running on
Replace with / Apply Patch
* Notes on updating VMware Guest Tools:
After the update or patch is applied, VMware Guest Tools must be updated in any pre-existing Windows-based Guest Operating System followed by a reboot of the guest system.
4. Solution
VMware Workstation
---------------------------
https://www.vmware.com/go/downloadworkstation
VMware Player
---------------------------
https://www.vmware.com/go/downloadplayer
VMware Fusion
---------------------------
https://www.vmware.com/go/downloadfusion
ESXi and ESX
---------------------------
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads
ESXi 5.1
---------------------------
File: update-from-esxi5.1-5.1_update01.zip
md5sum: 28b8026bcfbe3cd1817509759d4b61d6
sha1sum: 9d3124d3c5efa6d0c3b9ba06511243fc6e205542
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2041632
update-from-esxi5.1-5.1_update01.zip contains ESXi510-201304102-SG
ESXi 5.0
---------------------------
File: ESXi500-201303001.zip
md5sum: c62470c48e81da84891c79d5533c8e91
sha1sum: 69fe8933888d2a6c4e53cfe822441c963bdcd2c7
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2044373
ESXi500-201303001.zip contains ESXi500-201303102-SG
ESXi 4.1
---------------------------
File: ESXi410-201301001.zip
md5sum: 2fce8e96048b5f80354e90a1b9e7776c
sha1sum: d38283afafe7e27fc64f11cf780e0f1577f98c6c
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2041332
ESXi410-201301001 contains ESXi410-201301402-BG
ESXi 4.0
---------------------------
File: ESXi400-201305001.zip
md5sum: 065d3fa4b0f52dd38c2bd92e5bfc5580
sha1sum: 1f3cab25a144746372d86071a47e569c439e276a
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2044241
ESXi400-201305001 contains ESXi400-201305401-SG
ESX 4.1
---------------------------
File: ESX410-201301001.zip
md5sum: a8685fff822d6fd2d112db20f223d8fd
sha1sum: 4f5e6d0d11c5666bcf7488b0a970e052c77c73f0
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2041331
ESX410-201301001 contains ESX410-201301401-SG
ESX 4.0
---------------------------
File: ESX400-201305001.zip
md5sum: c9ac91d3d803c7b7cb9df401c20b91c0
sha1sum: 7f5cef274c709248daa56d8c0e6fcc1ba86ae411
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2044240
ESX400-201305001 contains ESX400-201305401-SG
6. Change log
2013-12-03 VMSA-2013-0014
Initial security advisory in conjunction with the release of VMware Fusion 5.0.4 on 2013-12-03.
7. Contact
E-mail list for product security notifications and announcements:
http://lists.vmware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/security-announce
This Security Advisory is posted to the following lists:
* security-announce at lists.vmware.com
* bugtraq at securityfocus.com
* full-disclosure at lists.grok.org.uk
E-mail: security at vmware.com
PGP key at: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1055
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