VMware Security Advisories

Advisory ID VMSA-2019-0011.1
Advisory Severity Moderate
CVSSv3 Range 5.3
Synopsis ESXi patches address partial denial of service vulnerability in hostd process (CVE-2019-5528)
Issue Date 2019-07-09
Updated On 2019-09-03
CVE(s) CVE-2019-5528

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1. Impacted Products
  • ESXi
2. Introduction
A partial denial of service vulnerability in ESXi was reported to VMware Security Response. Patches and workarounds are currently available to remediate or workaround this vulnerability.
3. Partial denial of service vulnerability in ESXi hostd process (CVE-2019-5528)

Description:

Multiple failed login attempts to ESXi may cause the hostd service to become unresponsive resulting in a partial denial of service for management functionality. VMware has evaluated the severity of this issue to be in the Moderate severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 5.3.

Known Attack Vectors:


A malicious actor with network access to an ESXi host could create a partial denial of service condition in management functionality. Successful exploitation of this issue may cause hostd to become unresponsive resulting in conditions such as an ESXi host disconnecting from vCenter.

Resolution:

To remediate this vulnerability, apply the patches listed in the 'Fixed Version' column of the 'Resolution Matrix' found below.

Workarounds:

Workarounds are available for this issue, follow the instructions in the documents linked in the 'Workarounds' section found below.

Additional Documentations:

None.

Acknowledgements:

None.
 

Notes:

  • If hostd becomes unresponsive due to CVE-2019-5528 the condition can be cleared by restarting the hostd service, it is not necessary to reboot the ESXi host.
  • Vulnerability scanners have been reported to trigger this vulnerability via multiple failed login attempts to ESXi.

Response Matrix:

Product Version Running On CVE Identifier CVSSV3 Severity Fixed Version Workarounds Additional Documents
ESXi 6.7 Any CVE-2019-5528
 5.3 Moderate ESXi670-201908201-UG
 kb67920 None
ESXi 6.5 Any CVE-2019-5528
 5.3 Moderate ESXi650-201907201-UG kb67920 None
ESXi 6.0 Any CVE-2019-5528
 N/A N/A Unaffected N/A N/A

4. References

Mitre CVE Dictionary Links:

https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2019-5528

 

 

Fixed Version(s) and Release Notes:

 

ESXi670-201908201-UG:

Downloads:

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch

Documentation:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/rn/vsphere-esxi-67u3-release-notes.html

 

ESXi650-201907201-UG:
Downloads:

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch

Documentation:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/rn/vsphere-esxi-65u3-release-notes.html


Workarounds:

 

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/67920

5. Change log
 

2019-07-09: VMSA-2019-0011

 

Initial security advisory detailing remediations and workarounds available for ESXi.

 

2019-09-03: VMSA-2019-0011.1

 

Updated security advisory detailing ESXi 6.7 remediation information.

6. Contact

 

E-mail list for product security notifications and announcements:

https://lists.vmware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/security-announce

 

This Security Advisory is posted to the following lists:

  security-announce@lists.vmware.com

  bugtraq@securityfocus.com

  fulldisclosure@seclists.org

 

E-mail: security@vmware.com

PGP key at:

https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1055

 

VMware Security Advisories

https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories

 

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

 

VMware Security & Compliance Blog  

https://blogs.vmware.com/security

 

Twitter

https://twitter.com/VMwareSRC

 

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