VMware product updates address a critical glibc security vulnerability
2. Relevant Releases
ESXi 6.0 without patch ESXi600-201602401-SG
ESXi 5.5 without patch ESXi550-201602401-SG
VMware virtual appliances
3. Problem Description
a. glibc update for multiple products.
The glibc library has been updated in multiple products to resolve a stack buffer overflow present in the glibc getaddrinfo function.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2015-7547.
VMware products have been grouped into the following four categories:
I) ESXi and ESX Hypervisor
Versions of ESXi and ESX prior to 5.5 are not affected because they do not ship with a vulnerable version of glibc. ESXi 5.5 and ESXi 6.0 ship with a vulnerable version of glibc and are affected.
See table 1 for remediation for ESXi 5.5 and ESXi 6.0.
II) Windows-based products
Windows-based products, including all versions of vCenter Server running on Windows, are not affected.
III) VMware virtual appliances
VMware virtual appliances ship with a vulnerable version of glibc and are affected.
See table 2 for remediation for appliances.
IV) Products that run on Linux
VMware products that run on Linux (excluding virtual appliances) might use a vulnerable version of glibc as part of the base operating system. If the operating system has a vulnerable version of glibc, VMware recommends that customers contact their operating system vendor for resolution.
WORKAROUND
Workarounds are available for several virtual appliances. These are documented in VMware KB article 2144032.
RECOMMENDATIONS
VMware recommends customers evaluate and deploy patches for affected products in Table 1 and 2 below as these patches become available. In case patches are not available, customers are advised to deploy the workaround.
Column 4 of the following tables lists the action required to remediate the vulnerability in each release, if a solution is available.
Table 1 - ESXi
4. Solution
ESXi
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Downloads:
https://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/findPatch.portal
Documentation:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2144057 (ESXi 6.0)
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2144357 (ESXi 5.5)
VMware virtual appliances
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Refer to VMware KB article 2144032
5. References
VMware Knowledge Base article 2144032
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2144032
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2015-7547
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6. Change Log
2016-02-22 VMSA-2016-0002
Initial security advisory in conjunction with the release of ESXi 5.5 patches and patches for virtual appliances as documented in VMware Knowledge Base article 2144032 on 2016-02-22.
2016-02-23 VMSA-2016-0002.1
Updated security advisory in conjunction with the release of ESXi 6.0 patches on 2016-02-23.
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7. Contact
E-mail list for product security notifications and announcements:
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This Security Advisory is posted to the following lists:
security-announce at lists.vmware.com
bugtraq at securityfocus.com
fulldisclosure at seclists.org
E-mail: security at vmware.com
PGP key at: https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1055
VMware Security Advisories
http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories
Consolidated list of VMware Security Advisories
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2078735
VMware Security Response Policy
https://www.vmware.com/support/policies/security_response.html
VMware Lifecycle Support Phases
https://www.vmware.com/support/policies/lifecycle.html
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